


Another time, another place

by Filologa3



Category: Arrow (TV 2012) RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-28
Updated: 2014-08-27
Packaged: 2018-01-26 21:45:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 44,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1703648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Filologa3/pseuds/Filologa3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"There’s always hope. Impossible is nothing". </p><p>Stephen Amell is happily married and totally enchanted with his baby Mavi. However, as time passes by and he gets to spend more and more time with Emily Bett Rickards, they will realize things have changed between them. Is this the beginning of an impossible love? </p><p>[All respects to Stephen, Emily and their families. This is all fiction]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The bet

A cold breeze came in through the window, causing the curtains to flap. Stephen quickly closed it. He was reading the new Arrow script for episode 2x06 and he didn't want the papers to fly out. He was totally absorbed in the reading: the Team Arrow had to travel to Russia and Oliver and Felicity shared some very emotional scenes, so he was really excited to shoot the episode. Suddenly, his phone vibrated.

_Boo! Oliver is a jerk_

It was an Emily's whatsapp message. She must have read the script already and apparently, she was mad at Stephen's character. He smiled. She was always so cheerful… he could imagine her sending him the message while reading through the papers. He was going to reply, but he heard his wife coming home.

"Hi daddy", Cassandra said in a sweet tone carrying their baby: Mavi.

Stephen stood up and took Mavi, giving her the biggest smile in the world. "Look who's here! Hello little monkey", he said caressing Mavi's cheek.

Cassandra approached him and kissed him briefly. "Is that your new script?"

He nodded. "Yeah, it's awesome."

She grinned. "You say this of every single episode".

He smiled her back, coming closer. "Well, that's because all episodes are insanely good. Just like my beautiful wife", he answered and then he kissed her, this time with a little more passion. Cassandra stared at him. "How did I get to be so lucky? I married the best man in the world".

"We both are very lucky".

In that moment, Mavi hit innocently Stephen's face, making them laugh. "I think someone's jealous…", Cassandra murmured amused.

Stephen kissed Mavi's forehead. "You're my number one, little monkey. You will always be", he whispered in her ear.

Cassandra went to the kitchen. "Stephen, I'm gonna prepare a salad for me, do you want one?"

"Sure! In the meantime, I'm going to change Mavi's diaper."

*******

"So she already recognizes you!"

David and Stephen were talking in a break on set. Stephen was telling him how Mavi was doing.

"She's smarter than her father, definitely", David joked, and both men laughed.

"Hey!", they heard Emily shouting. She got closer and pretended to be angry. "Are you talking about my little princess without me? How cruel!"

She was clearly referring to Mavi. The truth was that she was only one month old, but the entire cast (and especially Emily) loved the child deeply. Stephen had taken her to set so many times, that she was one more in the Arrow family.

"My sincere apologies, my lady", Stephen said while David went to chat with Marc, the producer.

"Ok, ok", she replied having a seat next to him. They were in the Queen Consolidated set. "So, what about her? Is she already Miss Universe?"

He smiled. "Not yet. So far, she follows my voice wherever I go and she smiles when she sees me".

Emily covered her mouth with her hands. "Oh my gosh, so she already knows who you are! Oh, look at you, daddy Stephen!"

"She's amazing, yeah…"

Emily checked her phone. "You should bring her this week, I want to see her".

He was going to answer, but he knew she wasn't paying attention to him anymore. Whenever she used her mobile phone, the rest of the world ceased to exist. That's the difference between his and her generation. He hardly checked his phone unless he was waiting for something important. In contrast, Emily was almost all day glued to her phone. She was part of the technological generation and there was nothing to do about it. However, he didn't like that.

"I'm sorry, I was texting a friend. So, you're bringing her?" She insisted.

"Yeah, probably on Thursday. Cassandra has an interview to appear on a magazine, so I will take care of Mavi", he explained. Emily nodded.

"Perfect, then".

*******

"So… we're not doing the 'what happens in Russia stays in Russia?' " Oliver asked, raising his right eyebrow.

"We're still in Russia!", Felicity screamed visible mad at him.

"Cut!", said the director of the episode.

Stephen and Emily where inside a vehicle, shooting one of the scenes. Emily looked at him and murmured: "Oliver's such an asshole!"

"Tell me about it…" he said and both of them laughed.

Then, they saw Colton coming quite excited. "Hey, guys, that scene was incredible! You're olicity fans are going to freak out with this episode", he told them.

"Yeah, love is in the air", she sang getting out that car.

"By the way, why don't we go have a drink after filming?" Amell proposed.

"I'm in", Colton said.

"Count me in, too", Emily added. "I'm going to ask David and Katie".

At the end Colton, Stephen and Emily were the only ones to go out. David had already agreed he would have dinner with his wife and Katie was way too tired. Thus, these three went to the pub the cast always went and had one or two drinks. In fact, some more drinks, especially Colton. As a result, they were a little bit tipsy, cracking up about anything and making really silly comments.

"Can you believe it? She just winked at me!", Colton exclaimed happily.

Emily laughed. "Uuh, it seems someone has a hottie to pull…"

Colton drank what was left in his glass and looked at them. "I must leave. Duty calls".

Stephen joked: "Yeah, I want that kind of duty to call me too, haha".

They all shared a laughed and then Colton went after that girl, who was obviously flirting with him. So now there was just Emily and Stephen.

"You should look for a nice guy too, Em".

She stared at him, frowning. "And why would I do that when the hottest boy on Earth is right beside me?"

He gave her an honest smile. "True. But you know, I had to seem modest, humble and all that…"

She put her hand on his shoulder. "I know, I know. Anyways, all jokes aside, I prefer staying with you and your crazy little head".

He smiled again. "Should I feel flattered?"

"God, yes! I know you'd rather be with Cassandra, but sorry dude, that's all you get tonight", she said shaking her head. Stephen had a sip.

"Cassandra who…?"he was certainly kidding and so, they couldn't help laughing.

Then, Emily checked her phone. She had 58 messages from four different conversations. She was going to read them, but Stephen took the phone out of her hands. She looked at him in surprise. "Hey!"

"You must stop doing that. At least when you're with me".

She widely opened her eyes. "Why? I'm a girl, I can do two things at the same time. I can talk to you and reply my friends."

He snorted out a laugh. "No, you can't, and it gets on my nerves!"

She crossed her arms. "So now what? You're never going to give it back to me?"

"Yes, of course! But not until you promise me you will not use your phone for three days."

She stood up. "Wait, wait, wait, have you gone crazy? Three days?"

He nodded. "Yep. Three days. It's a bet."

She suddenly seemed interested. "A bet, ok. And what do I get in exchange?"

"I will agree to watch that film with you".

"Film? What film?", she was lost, at least momentarily. "Oh my god! The film!"

Emily had been asking the whole cast to watch with her a new movie called 'How to seduce a muffin'. The title just said it all. And it also justified why everyone had told her 'no'. Even Colton.

"Ok, but what if I can't resist using my phone? It'll be tough"

Stephen considered the options and then he said: "Well, if that was the case, you could text me. I only let you use your phone to text me. I'm the only one you can annoy for the next three days".

Emily smiled. "Then, you'd better be prepared, Mr Amell".

"I am. Anyway, you won't get it. I'm sure you'll lose."

Emily became slightly pissed. "You're not the only one with will power, you know?"

He gave her a tap on her back. "We'll see…"

 

**Hi everyone!**

**Since many people are so obsessed with Stephen and Emily and want them together, I just wanted to give you a little something. So remember, this is my humble attempt, so please, be kind to me and forgive any possible mistakes. Also, any useful/supportive comment will be well taken :)**

**Thank you so much and please, let me know what you think about it.  
Xo **


	2. After party & the favour

That same night, a little after Emily arrived home, she was sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed. Her phone was on a wooden table that was right beside the couch. She sensed it vibrate. Indeed, it vibrated several times. She took it but, before unblocking it, she left it on the table again. She couldn’t lose the bet. She would kill to watch that film, so she couldn’t afford losing. It vibrated again. It had to be Karen, her best friend, the one she talks to every single night. Except tonight. Well, tonight and the next three ones, according to Stephen. Emily stared at her phone for way too long. She panted and, out of desperation, she stood and walked around the living room like a zombie. Then, out of a sudden, she couldn’t help it any longer and took her phone. 

_“I look like a druggie with withdrawal symptoms...”_

She sent it to Stephen. She was almost entirely sure he would be sleeping, so she was extremily surprised when he replied so quickly. 

_Not surprised. Btw, do you have an idea of what time it is?_

She checked her phone. 02.41. Yeah, it was too late. 

_Yep, 2.41 (you said I could bother you, so... your fault man).Why are u still awake?_

The answer was simple and short. Just one word. “Mavi”. Emily grinned at the thought of Stephen up, trying to make Mavi sleep. 

_Oh, my little princess!_

 _...who right now stinks quite a bit_ , he replied, causing Emily laugh. 

_How dare you! It’s Saint’s poo!_  
She knew Stephen would be laughing at her comment, what made her smile too. 

_Sure... 2.47. Go to bed! Your curfew was long ago!_

She cracked up. He always teased her with comments like that, treating her like a child. He didn’t mean any harm, he knew Emily never took any offense. It was their own joke and they were happy teasing each other. He treated her like a child and she treated him like an old man. That was it, basically. 

_Ok, papi. Gnight!_

_Night & don’t cheat! The bet’s on. _

She shook her head. _I won’t. Send Mavi my best_

She wasn’t expecting any more messages, but then, just one minute after that, her phone vibrated again. It was Stephen, obviously. _What about me? Don’t I get anything? for bearing you?_

_Nope. Deal with it_

Stephen sent her a smiley :( 

Emily answered :) 

And, at the end, Stephen just said :)

She smiled at her phone’s screen and, once she set her alarm, she went to bed. 

 

***

Peep, peep. It was Tuesday, 6.15 AM and Stephen had a long day ahead. He took a shower very quickly while wondering when was the last time he actually had a bath and relaxed. Then, he dressed up and decided he would have breakfast on set. He didn’t have much time. He went to the bedroom. He leaned to kiss Mavi’s forehead and then he approached his wife. He looked at her for a few seconds. She seemed an angel. He kissed her cheek tenderly, but she woke up. It took her some time to realize that he was saying googbye to her. 

“Good morning...”, she murmured, cheking the hour, puffing.   
“Keep sleeping, it’s very early.” He said.   
She wrapped her hands around Stephen’s neck and kissed him. Suddenly, his phone vibrated, and so he separated. 

_I’m dead. 3 hours sleep is NOT enough_

It was Emily’s. Stephen kissed Cassandra very briefly once again and whispered: “I gotta go. I love you”.  
“Love you too”. 

***   
“You’re not a kid anymore, Stephen!”  
It was Robbie, Stephen’s cousin. They happened to meet from time to time because they shared some locations/sets since they worked for the CW. Stephen had just told him about last nigth with Colton and Emily and how little he had slept and Robbie was making fun of him, claiming he was too old for ‘undersleeping’.   
“Yeah I know. You make it very clear to me every f’cking day”, he answered amused, both of them laughing.   
“Wow, your party-loving partner is coming”, Robbie told Stephen, pointing out to Emily, who more dead than alive.   
She was like crawling on the floor, with bags from here to Pekin.   
“Good morning”, Robbie greeted her.   
“If you say so...”  
Stephen smiled. “Hey, I’m the grandpa here and you’re falling down on every street corner?”  
She gave him a threatening look. “shut up and bring me some coffee”.   
They all cracked up, except for Emily. Stephen was about to go, but he stopped again given Robbie’s comment: “By the way, Em, I sent you a photo last night, but you didn’t answer. Is your signal ok?”  
She puffed. The bet. Her phone. She couldn’t use it. “I need a coffee...”, she murmured leaving them there.   
Robbie looked at Stephen astonished. “What did I miss?”  
Stephen grinned. “Just send her lots of messages. She’ll be so glad...”, he answered half laughing. 

 

*** 

A few hours later, it was lunch time. Emily was with Katie, who was telling her about her fashion blog and how it was becoming a success. Katie and Emily got on pretty well, though they were not friends as such. They were very different, so Emily didn’t tell her private things of her life, and neither did Katie. But they often talked on set and had fun.   
“Hey, barbie”, Colton said, referring to Katie. “How you doing?”  
“Great. Ah, Colton, a friend of mine wants you to participate in a photo shoot. Are you in?”  
Colton sat next to her and asked her to give him the details. Emily stopped paying attention to them. She felt her phone in her pocket. It would be so easy to take it out and reply to her friends... And Stephen wouldn’t even realize it. But no, she was honest and she was strong. She would fairly win the bet.   
Then, the Arrow (or Stephen dressed as Arrow) came in. The duo beside Emily just said hi to him.   
“Em, can you come to my trailer a moment, please?” He asked her.   
She stood up and followed him to his ‘place of peace’, as he called it.   
It was pretty empty. There was just a little sofa, a desk with a laptop on it, two posters, A picture of Stephen’s family and a tiny closet. Emily had a sit on the couch and waited for him to talk.   
“I need to ask tou a favour”.   
“Hope it’s not money...” she said, kidding.   
“No. It’s just... Well, I married Cassandra in December, so in a few days it’s our anniversary.”  
She smiled. “Oh, congrats! And what do I have to do with this? Go to bed with her and don’t get out of there for a week”.   
Stephen laughed slightly. That was his Emily.   
“I want to prepare a romantic dinner for her, and my parents are on a trip and her family is in Italy right now, so I need you to take care of Mavi just for one night”.   
Emily was surprised, but really pleased. “Good! Girls night!”  
Stephen looked at her suspiciously. “Are you sure this is ok with you?”  
“You’re kidding? Of course! I mean... Mavi? She’s the cutest girl in the world”.  
He pinched her nose amused. “Thank you, Em.”   
“Always here, you know”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your support! :) 
> 
> Once again, please, let me know what you think about it, your theories/thoughts, what you would like to read, etc. I'd be very pleased with any useful comment to improve the story. 
> 
> So thank you again!
> 
> Xo


	3. Unexpected problems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! This last week I was on holidays, that's why I didn't update the story. But here I am. I hope you like it and please, let me know what you think about it. 
> 
> Xx

“So he took you to the beach?” Emily asked super excited.   
She was talking to Willa during one of their breaks and Willa was telling her how her boyfriend had surprised her last weekend. Apparently, he had picked her up at work at nine pm and she thought they were going to her place, but at some point, she realised they weren’t, so she asked him and he told her it was a surprise.   
“Yes! We went to the beach and he had already prepared like a romantic picnic! With a blanket, a basket and little candles”, she explained smiling when remembering everything.   
“Oooh, he’s so cute!”   
Emily smiled too. Willa and her boyfriend Dan had been though bad times, so hearing her friend telling her about this beautiful moment made her extremely happy. She deserved to be happy.   
“But now there is one problem”, Willa add a little bit worried.   
Emily frowned. “Which one? Dan is perfect”.   
Willa nodded. “I know. But he wants me to meet his parents and I don’t know if I’m prepared for that”.   
Emily covered her mouth with her hands. “OMG, so that’s the thing”.   
“Yes...”  
“Uh... parents-in-law... They’re so scary sometimes...”, Emily admitted and Willa laughed. “No, it’s true! I was once introduced to one of my boyfriends’ parents and they were very rich and when I was leaving their house, they made me show my bag to the guard in the entrance! As if I was a thief or something!”  
Willa couldn’t believe it. “Really? And what did you do?”  
“breaking up with him, of course!”  
They both cracked up. Emily hadn’t had many boyfriends, only two of them had been serious, the rest had just been flirts and one-night relationships. But let’s face it: she was only 21 at that time, so it made sense.   
“And what about you? Anyone in the radar?”, Willa asked her with a gossiping tone.   
Emily puffed. “Nope. Nobody loves me”.   
Willa smiled. “And you? Do you love anybody?”  
Emily remained quiet for two seconds and then she said “No, I don’t think so. Maybe it’s that I ask too much...”  
“Maybe”.   
Emily then said “The day I find someone who eats cookies with mayonnaise, that will be THE guy for me”.   
It was a joke, obviously. Emily actually liked biscuits with mayonnaise, but she knew how rare it was, how few people did that and, also, that it wasn’t really a way of deciding your love future. But for now it was a way of ending the topic. She wasn’t on the mood to talk about her love life. It was not as interesting as Willa’s. Emily’s last relationship had ended five months ago, when she started to be busier and busier with Arrow and, as she got to travel a lot, she could hardly see her boyfriend and so, they decided to break up and remain friends. Since then, she had just flirt with one or two boys, but nothing got in fact serious and that had been all. She had been really focused on her work and all her free time was spent with her friends and her family. Love was not really a priority for her or something she was looking for. She had already experienced how hard it is to have a boyfriend when you are an actress, so she wasn’t that excited to find love. Anyway, she was 21, she had plenty of time ahead, so she just wanted to have fun and be wild and young and free. 

Suddenly, Emily’s phone vibrated. She stared at it, but she does not move.   
“What happens? Why don’t you take it?”, Willa asked.   
“Stephen happens”, she answered. Given Willa’s poker face, she added: “It’s a bet. If I spend three days without using my phone, he will go to see the film ‘How to seduce a muffin’ with me”.   
“Wow, then you should appreciate that. I mean, when you first mentioned that film, he told me that movie would be the last in the world he would watch, so...”  
Emily smiled. “He really is a hero...”

***  
Later that day, Colton bought some ice cream and took it to the set. He was with emily, enjoying the ice cream.   
“That bet is rubbish. I miss talking to you 24/7.   
“Oh, me too”, she said with a childish voice.   
They had become such good friends that Colton was now part of Emily’s friends group. They actually talked all day and they never ran out of topics.   
“But I really want to see that film”, she went on. “And Stephen’s my last chance, because if I am not mistaken, you absolutely refused to go with me. I’ll never forgive you for that, just so you know”.   
Colton raised his hands with desperation. “Oh, c’mon! The last time I went to the movies with you, you made me watch ‘Lucy, the pink dog’ and I swear to God I almost die right there!”  
Emily rolled her eyes. “You’re exagerating...”  
Then, her phone vibrates again. It’s her brother. She had doubts, but she finally decides to ignore her phone. “Bah, it’s probably nothing.”  
Colton took her phone and turned if off. “If you don’t want to succumb to temptation, you should keep you phone off”.   
Emily agreed. “Yeah, you’re right... Oh my Gosh... two more days and I’ll be free...”  
Colton put his arm around Emily’s back and said: “I have something to cheer you up”.  
“What’s that?”  
“Karen told me she had tickets for the ‘Moondance’, the new disco”.   
Emily was astonished. “OMG! And when are we going?”  
“Tomorrow night.”  
“Tomorrow? I can’t wait!”, she replied totally glad. 

****  
“Because of the life that I lead, I just think that it’s better to not be with someone that I could really care about.”   
Felicity looked down and, after a few seconds, she stood up and passed by Oliver, who closed his eyes fully aware he had screwed everything. However, she stopped right before leaving, the sound of her shoes disappearing, causing Oliver to look at her.   
“Well, I think you deserve better than her”.   
“and CUT!”  
Emily breathed. That film had been quite difficult to shoot. It was so intense and emotional...  
“Seriously, Oliver?”, she asked Stephen.   
He laughed. “You really hate him, don’t you?”  
She grinned. “Actually I don’t, but he desperate me sometimes. Like this one. Poor Felicity!”  
“I know. I’ll talk to him and I’ll tell him my dear friend Em wants him to be with Felicity once and for all”.   
She smiled. “You should definitely do that”.   
They were going to the cafeteria, saying hi to anyone they ran into.   
“By the way, I’ve finally planned my romantic dinner with Cassandra tomorrow night. Can you do it?”  
Emily thought of the new disco, Moondance, and of how mad Colton will be, but she said “Yeah, sure. Count on me”.   
“Great! Thank you so much, Emily!”  
“Always, you know”.  
He nodded. “Yes, I know”, he said with a tender smile. 

***  
It wasn’t until the next day that Emily told Colton she couldn’t go to the disco. She made up an excuse: Stephen wanted to keep it secret so that no rumour got to Cassandra’s ears. She would tell Colton later on. Colton got a little bit upset, he would have wanted to have a blast with her, but there would be more opportunities. That day, when they had finished filming the show, Emily went with Stephen to his house to pick up Mavi, who was with Stephen’s neighbour: an old woman who got on really well with him and Cassandra. His wife was doing a photoshoot, so there was no rush. It wasn’t the first time Emily was in his house: he had invited the cast many times there, so she knew it very well. It was a big appartment with no sumptuous decoration and with little touches that made it clear it was Stephen’s house. For instance, there was a huge poster of Superman and Batman in one of the rooms, the one Stephen used as his office.   
Once there, Stephen thanked his neighnour for taking care of Mavi and Emily and he had a glass of wine, while Mavi was in the crib.   
“This must be Paradise”, Emily joked.   
“Yes, I won’t argue about that”.   
Emily put her glass on the table. “So, you have everything prepared for tonight?”  
“I do, I just hope she likes it”.  
Emily smiled. “I’m sure she will. I mean, you’re hot, a great actor, the perfect father, support good causes, an amazing person and, even, you took the effort to prepare a romantic dinner. God, if she doesn’t like it, she’d be an alien.”  
Stephen was the one joking this time. “It sounds like you want to marry me”.  
“Yeah, I would. Don’t you ever propose to me or I will have to say ‘yes’, man”.   
They laughed. It was cool being there, just relaxed after a hard day, just two friends who happened to be really comfortable with each other.   
“We should do this more often”, Stephen said.   
Emily nodded. “Definitely. I can’t say ‘no’ to a good red wine”.   
Stephen looked offended. “Hey, the important thing here is me, not the wine!”  
“OMG, you got me, I only come here for the wine...”  
He grinned. “Liar...”  
Emily smiled too. “You know I would always visit you even if you lived under a bridge with no food or wine.”  
Stephen cracked up. “Well, I hope you would help me in that situation”.   
“Sure, you could share a bed with my dog.”  
They laughed again. ‘How easy was everything when it came to Emily’, he thought.   
“Ups, it’s late and I don’t want to ruin your surprise dinner, so Mavi and I should be probably going”.   
They stood up and went to the kitchen, where he gave her a big bag with everything she might need that night regarding Mavi: diapers, baby bottles, special kind of milk, toys...   
He took Mavi out of the crib and Emily carried her. She kissed her forehead.   
“Hi my little princess, how are you doing?”  
Mavi made a weird sound. “I guess that means she’s super excited to come with me”.  
Stephen smiled at Emily’s comment. “Are you sure you want to do this?”  
Emily frowned. “Stephen, if you’re having second thoughts and you eventually don’t want me to look after her, I understand, really.”  
Stephen shook his head. “You’re one of the people I trust the most, Emily. I wouldn’t have asked you this if I didn’t trust you. It’s just that you’re very young, and I’m sure there must be a thousand things you’d prefer to do at night rather than looking after Mavi”.   
Emily hit his arm. “You are my friend. I would do anything for you. So stop, ok? I’m really happy taking care of her”.   
“You’re one in a million, Em.”  
“I’m aware of that”.   
And they laughed again.   
“Well, Mavi, say goodbye to Daddy”, she said moving Mavi’s hand as if she were saying goodbye.   
Stephen kissed his daughter’s cheek and he did the same with Emily.   
“If you need something, just call me”, he added.   
“Sure. Don’t worry and enjoy your night.”  
He accompanied them to the door and saw them go away. 

***   
Emily had spent the last hour trying to sleep Mavi, but it had been impossible. So now she gave up and she was playing with her in the living room.   
“Oh my God, this child’s energy is endless...”  
Suddenly, her phone at home rang. She letf Mavi on the sofa, protected by the cushion, and went to the kitchen to pick up the phone.   
“Hello?”  
It was her brother.   
“Emily, I’ve been calling you the whole day.”  
Right, he had called her, but she had turned off her phone due to the bet.   
“I’m sorry, I turned off my phone and-  
“Mum’s at hospital.”  
She got interrupted. “What? What happened?”  
“Please, come here as soon as possible. She’s had a heart attack.”  
Then, she heard a noise in the licing room and she remembered Mavi. She ran there and found her on the floor, crying. She must have fell down somehow. Emily checked her. Her lip was bleeding. Emily was having a mini heart attack herself. Her mother was at hospital and now this. She called Stephen.   
“Emily? Something’s wrong?”  
“I’m coming to hospital. I got distracted and Mavi fell down the sofa and her lip is bleeding, I don’t know what to do, so please, come to hospital”.   
“Ok, I’m coming.”  
Emily drove like crazy. She was having a panic attack. How could everything be going so wrong?


	4. Tears & shouts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there!
> 
> Well, first of all, thank you so much to Megara1 and EmArrow3 for your comments. It's always good to read your opinion and see how correct or wrong you are haha :P  
> In this case, you're quite correct (I must confess). 
> 
> So well, I encourage the rest of you to let me know what you think about anything related to the fiction through comments and a big thank you to everyone who reads it :) 
> 
> Xx

That night, in the waiting room, Emily was still anxious. Mavi was fine, she had just a little cut and her mum was now stable, but she couldn’t relax, she felt so guilty... Suddenly, she saw Stephen and Cassandra arriving. They looked scared.  
“Where’s my daughter’”, Cassandra asked with an alarming tone.  
“She’s in room 302. She’s ok, just a little cut on her lip...”  
Cassandra left without even hearing what Emily had to say.  
“What happened, Emily?”, Stephen wanted to know.  
“I was playing with her and my brother called me, and he told me my mum had had a heart attack and I heard Mavi and... I’m so sorry...”  
Stephen caressed Emily’s right arm. “How’s your mum? Is she ok?”  
Emily shook her head in confusion. “I don’t know, she’s fine, I guess. I just... I... I was...”, she could end the sentence, she bursted into tears.  
“hey...”, Stephen held her in his arms. “It’s ok, Emily...”  
“It’s just... I thought I... was gonna lose her... and then Mavi...”, she was crying her heart out.  
“Em, it was an accident. It could have happened to anyone!”, he said, smiling a little bit, trying to make her feel better.  
“I know, but...”  
“Besides, Mavi’s fine, so what matters now is your mum.”  
Emily looked him in the eyes, with surprise and hope. “So you’re not mad at me?”  
He tapped her on her forehead slowly, kindly. “Of course not. Look, now I’m going to check on Mavi, but as soon as I can, I’m coming to see your mother, ok’”  
Emily nodded. “Ok”.  
Stephen patted her on the head, and then left. Emily stood there, drying her tears, when she realised she should talk to Cassandra and say sorry. The elevator was occupied, so she took the stairs and, once she got to the room, she stopped at the door: someone was shouting inside.  
“How on Earth did you think leaving Mavi with her was a good idea? She’s 21, she’s just a kid! A kid cannot take care of another kid!”, Cassandra roared.  
Stephen was calm. “You’re overreacting. It’s not like Mavi’s seriously injured”.  
“But she could have been, don’t you get it?”, she replied out of her mind.  
“It was an accident”, Stephen kept on trying to convince his wife.  
“She wasn’t paying enough attention!”  
At that moment, Stephen exploded. “Her mum had had a heart attack!Anyone in her situation would have forgotten about Mavi for a second!”  
She shook her head. “No, I wouldn’t.”  
“Because you’re her mother”.  
“And she is only 21”.  
Stephen was getting desperate. “Yeah, but she’s mature enough. I trust her.”  
“Well, I don’t. Not anymore.”  
Stephen crossed his arms. “And what do you expect me to do?”  
“I don’t want Mavi near her ever again.”  
“You’re just nervous now, tomorrow you’ll see things from a different perspective and..:”  
“I won’t, Stephen”, she claimed in a very serious tone.  
There was a long silence between them. Emily realised then she had been holding her breath.  
“Emily loves Mavi”.  
Cassandra answered immediately. “I’m sorry..:”  
“You’re not making any sense, Cassandra”.  
“Neither are you!”, she screamed, making Mav cry. “Why do you defend her so much? Mavi’s your daughter!”  
Stephen carried Mavi and tried to calm her down. “Because she’s not the one to blame here! She didn’t do it on purpose! It was an accident!”  
“Today’s been a cut, but who knows what will be in the future...”  
Stephen sighed. “You’re exaggerating”  
“And you are blind, Stephen.”  
“She’s my friend. I’m not going to punish her for this. So I’m sorry if you don’t want Mavi near Emily, but I do, and I’m his father too.”  
Cassandra murmured: “Ok...”, and she left the room.  
Emily saw Cassandra face to face. She didn’t know what to do after everything she had heard, so she preferred to ignore it and say what she came to say.  
“Cassandra, I’m sorry, I really am sorry.”  
Cassandra pretended a smile. “Yeah, ok...”, and she went away.  
The door was half opened, so Emily went in. Stephen was rocking Mavi.  
“Did you hear everything?” he asked alarmed.  
Emily nodded, with a sad smile.  
“I’m sorry. Cassandra is just scared, she will change her mind tomorrow.”  
Emily would like to tell Stephen that his wife was right. That she should not be close to Mavi any longer. But she wasn’t on the mood to have an argument with Stephen, so she simply nodded again. Suddenly, Stephen approached her, with Mavi still in his arms.  
“Doyou want to hold her?” he said with a smile.  
Emily took one or two steps back, kind of afraid. “No, I’m... Don’t worry.”  
“Emily, carry her”, he told her.  
Emily came closer to them and very slowly, she carried Mavi and looked at her little eyes. She immediately smiled.  
“My pricess... oh, look your lip...”  
Stephen stared at them. Emily would be such an amazing mother, he was sure. Emily was pure gold.  
“Better?”, he asked.  
She nodded, this time totally convinced. She could never be far from Mavi. She loved that child with all her heart. And Stephen knew it.  
“I’m sorry your surprise dinner hasn’t turned out well”, Emily whispered.  
Stephen sat on the sofa. “Why? We are definitely going to remember this anniversary”, he joked.  
“I’m serious”, she said placing Mavi inside the crib.  
“So am I”.  
They looked into each other’s eyes for so long Emily though he could see through her. She finally avoided his eyes and changed the topic. “I’ve lost the bet. I’ve called my family and Colton and some other friends.”  
Stephen grinned. “So what?”  
Emily seemed surprised. “So you win and you don’t have to watch the film with me”.  
Stephen titled his head. “You know what? I was actually looking forward to watching that film. I’m curious, I want to know how we can seduce a muffin”.  
Emily laughed for the first time that night and he felt relieved by the sound of her laugh.  
“Liar!”  
“It’s true! I don’t think I can go on with my life without knowing that”  
Emily felt extremely happy. “So you’re coming with me anyway?”  
He nodded. “Yes, I’m coming with you. Besides, you were doing really well with the bet”.  
“I was, indeed”.  
Then, Colton and her friend Karen stormed through the door. “Em! What’s happened? How’s your mum?”  
She told them what had happened and they went to her room. Stephen waited till Cassandra returned to go to visit Emily’s mum. Stephen and his wife were not in good terms, but at least they talked. It wasn’t until early that morning, when they went home that they finally made peace. Mavi was sleeping and Cassandra was putting on her pyjamas when Stephen approached her behind her back and hugged her.  
“I hate being like this with you”, he murmured.  
“Me too, Stephen.”  
She turned to look at him. “I’m sorry”, she said caressing his cheek.  
He kissed the plam of her hand. “I love you”.  
She smiled a bit. “I love you too”.


	5. Problems ahoy!

It was Friday. Emily’s mother had been in hospital for three days now, and she was still recovering. Emily had been visiting her whenever her busy schedule allowed her. Different members of the cast had gone there too, such as Katie, David, Susana or Paul, but the ones who had spent the most time at hospital with Emily were Colton, Willa and Stephen. Emily’s mum was apparently fine, though she had to have a healthy and balanced diet from now on and do some exercise, but even though Emily wanted to be with her as much as possible, and having her friends by her side always made it easier. However, that Friday Emily couldn’t stay with her because she and Stephen were going to the movies to see ‘How to seduce a muffin’. They went together to the cinema after work. It was a small cinema, the perfect place where they wouldn’t be noticed. They bought the tickets and some popcorn, as well as two cokes. 

“I can’t believe I’m about to watch it!” Emily exclamed really excited as they looked for their seats.  
Stephen was happy just seeing how smiley she was.  
“Look, here”, he says pointing out at two seats in the last row.  
The film was an hour and twenty minutes long. Emily absolutely enjoyed it and, to Stephen’s surprise, so did he. It was about a little girl who wants to become the best pastry chef in the world and to do so, she claims that she has to seduce her creations. So she talks to them and she takes care of them before people eat them and, once they do it, they all say it is the best muffin ever. Of course, the girl also meets a boy and they kind of fall in love, which helps her figure out how to seduce something or someone.  
“Gosh, it was awesome!”, Emily said still excited while leaving the cinema.  
“Ouh, yes...”, Stephen tried to tease her.  
She hit his shoulder a little bit. “Come on! Admit you liked it! You almost cried when the boy is dying”.  
Stephen smiled and finally nodded. “Ok, I liked it. I don’t know if I’m gone crazy, but I really liked it”.  
“I knew it!”  
They stopped just in the entrance and stared at each other, not knowing what to say. They had already watched the film, so now what?  
“So...”, Emily started.  
He put his hands on his pockets. “Maybe we could have dinner?”, he suggested.  
They had had lunch/dinner together many times, as well as going out, but for whatever reason they felt nervous that night.  
“I thought you’d never say it! I’m starving, so yes, let’s go!”, she answered.  
They went to a Chinese restaurant Stephen had heard of. They ordered sushi and tofu and red wine.  
“By the way, how’s your mother? I haven’t seen her today”.  
“She’s good. You know, complaining about the hospital food, but this is a good sign, I guess”, she said and they both laughed.  
“Yeah, I remember when Cassandra was about to give birth, we were in the surgery room, waiting for her contractions to be more serious, and she hardly spoke and then Mavi was born, the doctors took her away to clean her the blood and that stuff and Cassandra told me “for God’s sake, go bring her to me”, and I knew she was just fine”.  
Emily got tensed when he mentioned Cassandra. Things were still complicated between them.  
“Cassandra is not mad at you anymore, don’t worry”.  
She tried to smile. “Good to know.”  
He took a sip of wine. “Oh, remember on Monday we have an interview.”  
Emily frowned. “Do we?”  
“Where are you? In the moon? I told you yesterday after talking to Mark”.  
She puffed. “True, sorry, I’m quite distracted these days with all that happened to my mum”.  
“I know. So have you read the new script yet?”, he asked her, trying to change the topic because he didn’t want Emily to feel sad or anything.  
Emily grinned. “Wow, how subtle you are changing the topic of conversations”, she said making him laugh. “No, I haven’t read it yet. Why? Have you?”  
He nodded with an iteresting face. “What? Tell me!”, she begged him.  
“Oliver kills again”.  
Emily opened her eyes widely. “Really?”  
“And guess why he kills...”, he murmured.  
“Why’”  
“To save Felicity”, he answered and she covered her mouth with her hands.  
“Finally! How beautiful! OGM, but I’m sure Felicity will feel horrible because Oliver has killed again and it’s because of her...”  
Stephen laughed. They knew so damn well their characters...  
“Yes, she apologizes because of that.”  
Emily remained silent some seconds and then she said: “we have to kill it in that scene, ok? It has to be the best scene ever”.  
Stephen agreed. “Deal.”  
“You know, I really think Oliver loves Felicity in some way, but he’s being so stupid by keeping some distance with her, and he is sometimes such an inmature boy, that I tend to think they should never be together, like Felicity deserves better”, Emily explained thoughtfully.  
Stephen looked at her. “Do you think Felicity knows she deserves better?”  
Emily nodded. “Sure.”  
He frowned. “Then why doesn’t she try to distance herself from Oliver and move on?”  
“Because love makes us do foolish things. We know it’s absurd to keep on being after that person, but even though, we do it. Love makes us vulnerable, I guess. We lose our sense of direction. We cease to know what is wrong or right for us.”  
Stephen stared at her. She may be 21 years old, but she was way too mature for her age, of that he was sure.  
“Yeah, love is a mystery”, he replied.  
“Yes. I believe that when you love someone, you don’t really know why. You just do it. And if you know the reasons why you love that person, then you’re lost, because that’s not real love, that’s an incredibly beautiful friendship.”  
Stephen thought about it. Why did he love Cassandra? Did he know it? Well, yes, because she was very patient, they shared the same principles and values and she had a great heart. But that was just Emily’s theory. It was not true.  
“But that’s just my opinion, of course”, she added.  
They kept on talking until they finished their dishes and then, Stephen asked for something very specific for dessert: biscuits with mayonnaise. Emily fixed her gaze on Stephen.  
“What are you doing?”  
He seemed lost. “Eh... eating cookies with mayonnaise? I know it might be a little weird, but I’m used to it.”  
Emily remembered her conversation with Willa a few days ago:  
 _“The day I find someone who eats cookies with mayonnaise, that will be THE guy for me”. ___  
Maybe it was because Emily’s guard was low, or maybe because she was shocked, but she felt her heart beating a little bit faster than usual.  
“I like it too”, she told him.  
“Oh, do you want some?”  
She nodded, picking up two biscuits.  
When they finished, Stephen paid for the dinner, and Emily made him promise next time he would let her pay.  
“Do you want me to drive you home?”, Stephen offered.  
“No, don’t worry. Besides, I need to go first to some 24h supermarket. My fridge is at death’s door”.  
They laughed. Emily smiled and looked at him. Then, she hugged him. It took him by surprise: he wasn’t expecting this. At least not yet.  
“Thank you, Stephen. I really needed to go out, clear my mind and just have fun. Also, you’re the only one who wanted to watch that film with me. That’s so sweet of you...”, she said without breaking the embrace.  
Stephen caressed her back with his right hand, feeling her breathing in an harmonious way. “Always, Em.”  
She laughed because that’s what she always told him whenever he asked her a favour or something.  
“Yeah... always.”  
And just like that, they kissed each other’s cheek and said goodbye, both of them leaving with a weird feeling. 

*** 

Stephen arrived home late, around 12.30 pm. Cassandra was reading a book, waiting for him.   
“Hey, you’re still up?” he asked surprised while he leaned over to kiss her.  
“Yes, I was worried about you.Your film was at 8 pm, so I thought something could have gone wrong.”  
He sat next to her. “Oh, sorry, I had dinner with Emily, I forgot to tell you”.  
Cassandra closed her book. “You had dinner together?”  
He nodded. “Yep. She’s going through a difficult time, so you know, she needed to get some fresh air.”  
She looked at him. “And you helped her get the air, of course. Always Stephen the gentleman.”  
He didn’t know how to interpret that. “What do you mean, Cassandra?”  
She sighed. “Nothing. Nothing.”  
She stood up, heading to their room when Mavi started crying. Cassandra stopped and said: “your daughter is calling you”, and then she went to sleep. 

_***_

Emily was in a supermarket near her appartment. She had to buy milk, eggs, cereals, chicken fillet and some bananas. She was trying to figure out where her favourite cereals were, when she heard someone saying:   
“Excuse me, your the woman from Arrow, aren’t you?”  
It was a man, but she was so focused on finding the cereals that she didn’t look at him.  
“Yeah, I am. Do you have any idea where the Kellogg’s cereals are?”  
Suddenly he gave her a box of cereals. It was what she wanted. It was then when she looked at the man she was talking to and her surprise couldn’t be bigger.  
“Ian?”  
He smiled happily. “Hi, Em. How are you doing?”  
She smiled too. “Oh my God, Ian, it’s you! It’s been ages since the last time I saw you!”  
“Yeah, well, that what usually happens when couples break up”, he admitted.  
Ian was Emily’s last ex-boyfriend, the one she was dating five months ago. They broke up in good terms, it was just a matter of incompatible schedules, but still they hadn’t talked since then.  
“And tell me, how’s your family?” he asked her.  
“Buf, my mum had a heart attack the other day”, she answered and, given his worried look, she immediately added: “but she’s fine, she’s just recovering”.  
“You should have called me, I would have come”, he confessed.  
She put her right hand on her neck, a little bit ashamed. “Well, you are my ex, so I couldn’t just call yoy. You know, a sort of exes’ code.”  
Ian smiled. “What if we go to that pub we used to go and we catch up on our lives?”  
Emily wasn’t sure what to say. Did she want to go out with her ex?  
“I can’t, tomorrow I’m going to get up early to visit my mother at hospital”, she replied.  
Ian looked down, kind of upset.  
“But we can have lunch, if you want to”, she added, making him cheerful again.  
“Perfect.”  
Emily didn’t know if she had decided the right thing, but right now, everything in her head or heart felt confusing, so she did the only thing she could: keep on moving. What she didn’t know yet was that Ian was going to bring even more problems to her life. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for your support! I'm missing more comments, though. Please, don't be shy. You can tell me constructive criticism, I will gladly accept it, these things only serve to improve the stories, so please, either they're positive or negative (with respect), feel free to comment :) 
> 
> As you can see, this chapter is rather transitory, although we get a glimpse of what is coming and what is changing. 
> 
> Hope you liked it :D 
> 
> Xx


	6. Hello Ian

It was Saturday morning, 11.37, and Emily was by her mother, who was sleeping at that moment. Her brother had gone home to have a shower and buy some things he needed, so she was basically alone. She checked her watch: she had an hour and a half left before meeting Ian. She wasn’t sure yet if that was actually a good idea, so she decided to tell Colton about it, who could be the voice of reasoning. So she texted him.

_Hi love!_   
It took him seconds to reply.   
_Blondie! I dreamt about you last night. You’re even prettier in my dreams._   
She smiled. He always made her smile.   
_Oh, yes, such an angel..._   
Suddenly, Emily received another message, but this time from Stephen:   
_McDonald’s stocks have risen today._   
It was a weird sentence, but it didn’t suprise Emily at all: they usually iniciated conversations that way. It was their way of saying ‘hello’. She went along with him.   
_Buy them!_   
Another message, but this was Colton’s.   
_Right. A fallen angel..._   
She shook her head, amused.   
_Shut up! Btw, Ian’s back._   
She could imagine Colton’s face when reading her message. Colton liked Ian, they got on well, but Colton was not a fan of meeting exes. According to him, ‘exes are exes for a reason’.   
_Back how?_   
_I’m having lunch with him today._   
Stephen replied then: _What if I bring some burgers to your place and have lunch together?_   
Almost immediately, Colton sent another message. _You’re going to screw him!_   
She sighed and wrote: _I’m not going to screw anyone!_   
However, she sent it to Stephen, not Colton, but she didn’t realise that until she received Stephen’s answer: _Well, that wasn’t exactly my plan, but..._   
She blushed. She blushed even if he couldn’t see her. How embarrasing! So she tried to solve the situation.   
_Sorry, that message was for Colton._   
Nevertheless, everything got worse after that, especially when Stephen said: _So, you’re in fact screwing somebody?_   
Her fault. She hadn’t denied she was going to do anything with anyone, she just said she had mistaken the addressee of the message. She quickley replied NO.   
Then, Colton sent her another message, but she was getting confused, so she ignored him and focused on Stephen, not to make things even more complicated.   
_Then?_ That was the only word Stephen sent her. He wanted and explanation and she had to give it to him.   
_I have to refuse your burger plan at my place: I’m meeting Ian._   
_Ian? Your ex?_   
Stephen’s words hammered her. ‘My ex, yeah’, she thought.   
_The one and only. I ran into him last night after saying goodbye to you._   
This time, it took Stephen some minutes to answer.   
_How lucky..._   
Emily frowned. Was he implying something?   
_I perceive some irony there..._   
_Sure, because I was being ironic_ , he replied.   
Then, she couldn’t help herself and called him. Just when he picked up, she said: “Speak now”.  
He took a deep breath and said: “If I am not wrong, you and Iam broke up because you didn’t have time to see each other because you were an actress”.  
She nodded, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “I know, so?”  
“So you’re still an actress, Em”.  
She was getting desperate. “I’m pretty aware of that. But it’s not like I’m going to date him again. We’re just having lunch together”, she explained. For her it was not so strange.   
“Em, I have never had lunch with an ex with no romantic or sexual reason behind it. Nor me nor any other men in the world, believe me”, he told her from experience.   
“Ok, and what if I do want something with him? I’m single, I can do whatever I want”, she almost shouted.   
He remained silent for a moment. She knew she was being a little bit childish, and so did he, but she was 21 after all. And besides, who’s not childish sometime? Especially when it comes to love. He ignored her momentary lack of maturity and tried to make his point clear: “True, you’re right. I just don’t you want you to get hurt again”.   
She swallowed hard. “I know, Stephen... Sorry, I’m just nervous. I have no idea where all this will lead me”.   
He was the one sighing now. “Well, relax, now you’re just having lunch, as you said, just like friends, or kind of. So take it easy and have fun. Maybe he has no further intentions and we’re imagining things”, he talked.   
With that thought, Emily calmed down a bit. He was right. There were no reasons to think otherwise. Stephen always had that effect on her: he made her feel safe and in peace. Like nothing could go wrong. She often wondered if he felt the same way with her. 

*** 

Finally, it was lunch time. They were meeting in ‘Taco Shack’, one of the restaurants in Vancouver. She arrived the first and had a seat. Two or three minutes after, he came in. In the day light, she realised he had his brown hair shorter than months ago and it suited him. She got lost in his brown eyes when he said hi.   
“Hello, what’s up?”, she asked awkwardly.   
“Good, good”, he answered sitting opposite her. “Have you ordered yet?”  
“No, I have just arrived.”  
They spent the first moments deciding what to order to eat and that way they relaxed and started to feel more comfortable.   
“So tell me, how are you doing with your classes?”, Emily asked.   
Ian was a teacher. He graduated at the age of 22 years old in English literature and he did a postgraduate course on teaching. However, due to his Spanish origins, he was now teaching Spanish in a high school: his father was from Spain and so, he had been there many times and he had learnt Spanish, so a school hired him as a Spanish teacher, which he really enjoyed. Also, he spoke French. In fact, he had been going to a private school for ten years, so he was proficient in English, Spanish and French. Such a prodigy.   
“Great, my students are improving quite fast, so we can now do more activities. For instance, next Monday we’re doing the Spanish Day”.  
Emily was curious. “The Spanish Day?”  
He nodded, passionate about it. “Yeah, each one has to prepare something related to Spain. Maybe a dish, or a mockup of a famous monument or something like that and they have to present it to everyone”.   
“Wow, cool!”  
“Yeah, I’m having so much fun with them. They’re great”.  
Emily drank a little bit of water. “I’m sure they love you”.   
“Why are you so sure?”  
They stared at each other. Emily tried to think a good answer, one which didn’t show any kind of extra affection towards him, but it didn’t come to her mind, so she told the truth: “Because everyone loves you. You’re a great person, you know”.  
He grinned. “I’m going to be blushed scarlet at the end...”  
“Oh my God, I remember that time we went to see a baseball match and your hotdog fell over that woman’s hair and ketchup was everywhere and then she thought it was blood! Gosh, that was awesome and you were completely red!”  
They both laughed. “Woah, I apologized like seven times...”  
Emily smiled widely. “True, and you were so pitiful that she even bought you another hotdog...”  
“It was horrific...”, he said covering his face with both hands.   
Emily put her hand on his arm. “I found it cute. And besides, at the end of the day, they’re just anecdotes.”  
“Cute?”, he asked with interest.   
“Yeah, like film-cute, you know what I mean, right? Like you’re not typycal man who does everything perfectly well, you make mistakes and you are real, which makes you cute”.  
He smiled and fixed his gaze on her. “You never told me that.”  
“Well, you never asked me...”, she answered shruging her shoulders.   
Emily was digging her own grave and she knew that.   
She looked at him very briefly and she realised he was looking at her in a very weird way, like he used to look at her. Like a boyfriend.   
“I’ve missed you, Em”, he finally whispered.   
She looked up and right then she knew she was lost. Love is very difficult to find, but whenever you get to love someone, you love that person for the rest of your life. The only difference is that the love you feel each time is bigger or smaller depending on the person. So she still loved Ian, of course. He had meant a lot to her and she went through hell when they broke up. So she couldn’t lie to him.   
“I’ve missed you too, Ian”.   
His look was so endearing... He took her hand in his, and he was going to say something, but her phone rang. It was a message.   
“Oh, sorry”, she said, immediately reaching for her phone, just in case it had to do with her mum.   
It was Stephen.   
_Is everything ok?J_   
She smiled to herself. Stephen was always so attentive with her that she could not thank him enough.   
_Great. Talk to you later. Thanks!_   
“Sorry, I got a message”, she apologized.   
“Don’t worry. So tell me, how is your family? You told me last night your mum had a heart attack?”  
She nodded. “Yeah, it was not so serious as it seems, because it was just a shock, she’s fine now, but nothing will ever take the fright of that day away”, she explained.   
“Were you working when that happened?”  
“No, I was at home, looking after Stephen’s daughter”.  
He looked surprise. “Oh, so he’s a father already?”  
When they were dating, Cassandra was just pregnant.   
“Yes, he has a daughter, Mavi. She’s gorgeous. You should see her, she’s the best kid ever”.   
He smiled. “I can imagine. So... do you think I could pass by the hospital to see your mum one of these days?”  
“Sure! Just come when you wish”, she replied with joy.   
Then, his smile reminded her of something, of someone. His smile reminded her of the kind of smile Stephen made when interpreting Oliver Queen around Felicity Smoak. Except Ian wasn’t Stephen. 

No, he wasn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Here you have Ian :)   
> Hope you find the messages funny and hope you like Ian, really. 
> 
> Please, feel free to comment :D 
> 
> Xx


	7. Facing the impossible?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!  
> I'm so so happy you like this little story! :D  
> And you can't imagine how fun it is for me to write about these two, especially in this chapter with the interview. I love them ^^
> 
> So thank you and please, let me know what you think =)
> 
>  
> 
> Xx

That Monday afternoon Stephen and Emily had an interview. It was part of the promotion of the second season of Arrow, which was about to air on TV, so they had to do many things of this kind at that time. Stephen had been dying to aske Emily about her “date” with Ian (since she dind’t tell him anything at the end), but they hadn’t had the opportunity, so he waited patiently. Besides, he didn’t want to look very desperate or extra interested because he wasn’t. Was he? 

For their interview, they sat in their meeting room, where they usually went through the script before filming. They greeted their interviewer and they just started with the questions. At the beginning it just the same as always.  
“The first season of Arrow has been quite a success, so tell me, how are you living this?” He asked them.  
Emily looked at Stephen, like asking him for permission to talk, so he made a sign with his head, meaning that she could speak first.  
“Well, I basically do the same I did before but instead of working with animals, I have to pretend to be somebody else. But apart from that, I still hang out with the same friends, I go out to normal places... You know, it’s not like I’m Angelina Jolie, so...”, she explained, taking importance away from her.  
“I try to have a normal life. Sometimes it’s easier, sometimes more complicated, but in general terms fans are so kind to me that I can’t complain too much”, Stephen said meaning every single word.  
Now the man looked directly at Emily. “Emily, you were just a supporting role and now you are a regular one. Does this excite you?”  
Emily repressed a smile. Of course she felt excited. What kind of question was that?  
“Yeah, sure. I mean, I used to take part in some episodes randomly and now I’m in all of them, so I’m much busier and that’s a change. But I love it.”  
“And now we have to bear her every single day...”, Stephen joked.  
Emily faced him with a smile from ear to ear. “But you love me, you’re not fooling anyone...”  
Stephen put his hand on his chest, pointing at himself. “Ok, you got me”.  
And they shared a knowing smile.  
“Now I’m going to ask you short questions sent by the fans, ¿ok?  
They nodded. “Perfect”.  
Emily tied her hair in a ponytail, it was hot.  
“What’s your favourite animal?”  
Emily smiled. “I love cats, but I’m gonna say my dog!”  
Stephen laughs and said “Can she even say that?”  
The interviewer nodded and she stuck out her tongue to Stephen, which made him smile again.  
“Ok, my favourite animal...”, he murmured while looking up, trying to get inspired. “I don’t know right now... Can I say her dog too?”. She immediately laughs, infecting him with laughter.  
“Ok, another question. You have to finish the sentence. When you’re not on set, you’re...”  
“watching TV series”, Emily answered without hesitation.  
“with my daughter”, Stephen replied.  
Emily couldn’t help thinking that he hadn’t mentioned his wife. In fact he hardly ever did it.  
“Who is the funniest person on set?”  
Emily frowned, thinking carefully. “Ehmm... Gosh, don’t make me choose....”  
“If you don’t say me I won’t judge you”, Stephen told her, putting his hand on her back.  
“Good. Colton”, she said with false determination.  
“Hey!” he complaint and laughed at the same time.  
“What?”, she asked like not knowing what happened. Then she sighed and said to the interviewer: “men...”  
Stephen remained silent for a few seconds and then he answered: “I will say Stephen Amell”, causing everyone to laugh. “I mean, he’s such a hilarious man...”  
Emily nodded cracking up. “True, so funny this Amell...”  
“And why didn’t you say my name, Bett?”  
She gave him a twinkle in his eyes. “Just teasing you....”  
He got closer to her and whispered: “Hate you...”  
She grinned. “I know”. They stared at each other, but they came back to Earth when the interviewer made another question: “Can you say a default and a quality of the other?”  
This time Stephen came first. “Ok, the default... she’s very impulsive. And the quality... ehm...”  
Emily hit his elbow with her own. “So quick to talk about the bad and now you have to think? You’re definitely winning my heart!” she exclamed, pretending to be offended, though in a way she was.  
He took her hand and said in a low voice: “I’m just trying to choose just one out of the many qualities you have”. Then silence. He grinned. “I’ve just killed you, haven’t I?”  
She took her hand out of his. “Of course not. Well, maybe. Ok, yes!”, she finally agreed and they laughed.  
“My turn...”, Emily started. “Ok, a quality: great sense of solidarity and integrity”.  
The interviewer interrupted her. “That makes 2, not one quality...”  
“She loves me way too much, you see”, Stephen said as a kind of a secret to the other man, but loud enough so she could hear it.  
“Sure, isn’t it obvious?”, she went along with the joke. “Well, and your default...”  
Again: silence.  
“No faults, I know”, he said, teasing her.  
“Oh, shut up, you cocky!”, she shouted punching his arm.  
“So what do you say?” the other man asked her.  
“Stubborn.”  
Stephen looked at her. “I’m not stubborn”, he pointed out.  
“Yes, you are”.  
He shook his head. “No, I don’t think so...”  
“You are BEING stubborn now...”, she said and they laughed when they realised it was true.  
“Well, one last question”, the interviewer said. “Much has been said about Olicity, but what I want to know is: if you were your characters, who would you like to date?”  
“Quentin”, Stephen claimed and Emily was dying with laughter.  
“He’s great”, Stephen added.  
“Yeah, he’s great”, Emily coincided. “But Quentin and the Arrow? Call me crazy, but maybe it would be kind of an impossible love”.  
He smiled at her. “Rarer things have happened”.  
She nodded without knowing exactly what to get out of his comment.  
“I would say Tommy. He and Felicity would be great together. I mean, he’s dead now, but he would be perfect for her”.  
Stephen turned his body completely to confront her. “Would you cheat on me with my best friend? So cruel...”  
She looked surprised. “Cheat on you? Excuse me, but you’re not fortunate enough to be with me. I mean, with Felicity”.  
“Yet”, he replied with an intriguing look.  
“Yet”, she repeated.  
Then the interviewer spoke again. “So there’s hope for Olicity fans?”  
They stared at each other, smiled and then Stephen said: “There’s always hope. Impossible is nothing, right?”.  
At the end, they were asked to pose for a couple of pictures to acompany the interview. To do so, Emily posed with a bow and Stephen put on Felicity’s glasses and pretended to be checking a tablet. After that, on their way to the cafe, she told him:  
“Glasses look good on you, eh?”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah! You even look smart with them”, she teased him implying he wasn’t smart, which made him laugh. It was impossible to be serious when being around these two.  
“Miss Rickards!”, someone shouted from behind. They turned around and saw Colton approaching them. “Tell me everything about Ian”.  
Suddenly, he looked at Stephen, worried that he didn’t know anything and he would have messed it up.  
“Don’t worry, he knows everything. Ok, I’ll tell you both, because i forgot to call you Stephen, so...”  
They sat down far from the rest of the cast. Stephen was happy: finally he was gonna know what happened. “I had a really nice time. He was very cute and all and I enjoyed lunch”.  
Stephen and Colton remained silent. They looked at each other with impatience and then Colton asked what both of them were dying to know. “But something happened?”  
Emily shook her head. “Nope, nothing.”  
“And are you going to see him again?”, Colton insisted.  
“Dunno”, she answered.  
Colton opened his can of coke and had a sip. “Good. You know, exer are exes. They can’t be your friends nor your boyfriends again.”  
Stephen nodded. “Totally agree”.  
“I once tried to remain friends with one of my exes and it was a disaster. We always ended up making out, so we never got over each other and moving on was sort of impossible.”  
“I can imagine”, Stephen replied puffing. “I think you can never look at somebody who you loved so much as a mere friend”.  
“Yeah, me too. It feels so weird...” Colton answered.  
Emily was a little bit shocked, so she waved her hand at them. “Hey? I’m still here, just so you know, so can you just stop discussing my love life, please?”  
“Colton, Stephen! Get ready!”, someone screamed, calling them to shoot.  
Colton kissed her cheek. “See you later, love”. 

Stephen pinched her nose before leaving. She stood there, smiling to herself. What goofball friends she had... Then, her phone rang. She checked it. It was Ian, he was calling her. She hesitated. Eventually she didn’t pick it up. Maybe Colton and Stephen were right. ‘Stephen...”, she thought. There was a sentence still on her mind: There’s always hope. Impossible is nothing. He had said that during the interview and it was hammering her head. What kind of impossible was she facing up to, if there was any? One thing was clear: before trying to do the impossible, first you need to know what it is. First you need to know what you feel.


	8. Heart beats

That Tuesday was believed to be a great day of filming. That was the day when Stephen and Emily had one of the most important scenes so far: the after saving Felicity from the Count scene. They were a little bit nervous because they knew they had to sell it, they had to seem to feel something for each other without showing it too much because their characters didn’t know what they felt yet, so it was kind of difficult for them. However, they were very motivated: they wanted to do a great job and they always enjoyed these Olicity moments, as the Internet had called it. They dressed up as Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak and they went to set. David was already there, talking to Mark Guggenheim, who approached them when they arrived.  
“Guys, remember: I like you, but I don’t know it or I don’t wanna admit it and even if I did, I would try not to show it, ok?”  
His indications were quite clear, yet complicated. How can you convey those feelings in just one minute and without talking too much?  
They just nodded and got ready. They were shooting in the Arrow cave. Emily was sitting in Felicity’s usual chair, David was standing by her side and Stephen was out of the picture, waiting for his turn to show up. Everything started when the director said ‘action’. 

Oliver went in the lair, walking slowly and with exhaustation. The news was as a background noise. He saw Diggle putting on his jacket and Felicity sitting in her chair, covered with a grey blanket, still recovering from the incident with the Count.  
“Congratulations!”, she exclaimed. It had been Oliver’s mother’s trial and she had been declared innocent. “Is… that appropriate?”  
Oliver began to put off his shirt, keeping just his white t-shirt. It had been a really long day and he was extremely tired, so he wanted to be comfortable.  
“She should have lost. She should be convicted”, he said still fighting with his shirt, at the same time Diggle and Felicity came closer to him with a worried look.  
“You want her to be?”, Diggle asked him, feeling a bit confused after what Oliver had said.  
“I expected her to be”, he replied sitting on a metallic table. “Verdict doesn’t make sense”.  
“Still your mum must be thrilled. Beyond…” Felicity claimed.  
“It’s my shock, I think. They’re processing her now. I just wanted to check on you”, he said looking at Diggle, “and you”, he added staring at Felicity, lowering his voice a little bit. In fact, when he looked at her, he looked up and down, with tender, which made her smile.  
“I’m feeling better”, Diggle told him.  
“And… the Vertigo tainted vaccine, Queen Consolidated’s Applied Science Division was able to formulate a non-addictive treatment”, Felicity informed him with pride.  
Oliver tapped on the table slightly, showing his happiness despite his tiredness. “Good”. Then, he checked his watch and stood up. “Need to meet my family at home, so you guys go home, get rest”. Diggle and Oliver patted each other’s back as a farewell and, once Diggle was left, Oliver approached Felicity and, with a bright smile, he said: “Good night”.  
She smiled too and answered “Good night.”  
Nevertheless, she was dying to tell him something and she knew it was now or never. So she did it.  
“Oliver!”, she called him, making him turn around to face her again. She took some steps towards him. “I ahm…”, she began, noticing he was now the one approaching her, though he stopped at a sensible distance. “I just wanted to say thank you”.  
“Yeah”, he replied, ready to go again, but it was what she said after that what made him stay. “And I’m sorry”.  
Oliver frowned and he got closer, ending the distance that had them apart. “For what?”  
“I got myself into trouble again and you… killed him”, she said, and he sighed with desperation, looking down. “You killed again and I’m sorry I was the one who put you in a position where you had to make that kind of choice”.  
And then, in that very moment, Emily found it extremely difficult to hold Stephen’s gaze. His look was so sweet, so intense and so full with love, that she felt a knot in her stomach.  
“Felicty”, he whispered. She swallowed hard. Why did he have to talk in such a low and sweet tone? He took her hand, which she wasn’t expecting, but she accepted it. Actually, she squeezed his hand hard, as if that would be the solution for the heart attack she was having, and she felt relieved when he squeezed her hand too.  
“He had you and he was gonna hurt you”, he whispered again, fixing his gaze on her. Her heart was racing and she feared that he could hear it. What was happening to her? She needed desperately to look away, but somehow she couldn’t, she was lost in his blue eyes. Then, she saw him shaking his head and he said: “There was no choice to make”. They stared at each other’s eyes for some more secods and just when he kind of smiled, he let her hand go and went away, making her realise she was almost crying.  
“Cut!”, someone shouted and, right after that scream, everyone started to clap. Stephen came back and looked at Emily.  
“Hey, you’re crying?” he asked her putting his right hand on her cheek. She carefully shook her head, not to be in physical contact with him, drying her tears. “Yeah, I was carried along... Damn Oliver...”, she answered trying to sound funny.  
The truth was, she had no idea why she was crying. She just knew she felt something weird in her stomach and it wasn’t gas. Suddenly, when she dared to look at him again, she noticed he had his pupils dilated and he still kept that charming look.  
“Hey, that was so, so beautiful!”, Willa said coming towards them and hugging her from the back.  
Then, Mark and Colton approached too. “You killed it, guys, really. We won’t need any more takes”, Mark told them, which caused Emily to feel relieved. She wouldn’t have born another scene like that.  
“So... reconsidering the olicity issue?”, Colton joked.  
They all laugh, except for Emily, who was still in shock. “We’ll see, we’ll see...”, Mark replied. And as fast as people came to them, they left, leaving Stephen and Emily alone again. They seemed blushed and they couldn’t look in each other’s eyes for too long.  
“Stephen... I... I really enjoyed the scene”, she admitted trying not to sound very nervous.  
“Me too, Em”, he answered. And then silence. And looks of complicity. And silly smiles. And heart beats. And Cassandra.  
“Hi there!”, she said kissing him briefy. He had forgotten about her. Cassandra and Mavi had come that day to be together a little bit more and there she was. He coughed, staying calm, or at least, trying to.  
“Hi love”, he replied.  
She looked at both of them, who seemed to be annoyed by her presence. “Am I interrupting something?”  
“No! No, of course not”, Emily hurried to say. “We were just talking about the scene, you know how perfectionist your husband is”.  
Cassandra nodded with a smile. “Yeah, don’t tell me...”, she joked. “Wel,, I’m going to check on Mavi, ok? By the way, you did it great, both of you”  
“thank you, I’ll see you in a minute”.  
“Thanks, Cassandra”, Emily said with gratitude.  
Alone again, and Emily didn’t feel like surviving another minute there with Stephen.  
“Well, I’m going to hospital”.  
Stephen made a face of annoyance. “Wish I could go too. I haven’t visited your mum for a few days now”.  
“But Mavi and Cassandra are here, so... And besides, you don’t have to. I mean...”, she looked down, looking for the right words to say. “It’s not your duty to go to hospital, you know...”  
“Yeah, I know. But i wanna be with you”, he replied and something clicked in their minds as to all the different interpretations that sentence could have. “I mean... I know how boring being at hospital is, so I just want to make you company and make it easier for you, so you don’t go mad and... What am I even saying?”  
They laughed for the first time after the scene and this time it was real.  
“Anyway, you know what I mean...”  
“Yeah, I know. But don’t worry, she’s being released tomorrow morning, and since my father is on work trip, she’s staying at my place, so you can come over for dinner if you want to”, she said without thinking too much.  
He nodded with a smile. “Perfect”.  
“So... dinner tomorrow? At my place?”  
“Dinner tomorrow”, he agreed. Then, he pinched her nose and left. 

*** 

The next day, Emily got up really soon to pick her mum up. Fortunately, they arrived home soon. She helped her keep her things in a little wardrobe and then prepared something for breakfast.  
“Em, love, it seems a hurricane has passed through here”, he mum said pointing at her appartment, which was a mess.  
“I know, but I don’t really have time to clean everything with the show and the hospital...”  
Then she realised Stephen was coming that night. “Ups...”  
Her mum looked at her while folding some t-shirts of Emily’s. “What?”  
“I need to clear this up because Stephen in having dinner here tonight”.  
“Ok, I’ll help you”.  
Emily raised her hand and made her sit down. “Wait, wait. You’re not going to do anything. The doctor said you should rest, so sit down, turn off the TV and just relax”.  
Her mum complained. “But-  
“But nothing”, she sentenced. Her mum moaned, but she knew there was no point in trying to convince her daughter, so she did as she told her. 

*** 

“You’re going out with Emily again?”, Cassandra asked him, looking daggers at him.  
“Her mum has just been released, so I’m visiting her, that’s all”, he explained himself and wondered since when he had to defend himself and what he did to his wife.  
“Oh, great, much better then”, she ironized.  
“I won’t come back too late”.  
“Come when you wish. I’m going out with the girls”, she announced opening her closet to choose what to wear that night. “Can you look after Mavi?”  
He knew it wasn’t a question, but an imposition, actually. He grinned inside. He didn’t mind taking Mavi at all, he loved being with her, and if Cassandra didn’t know that, she didn’t know him at all.  
“Of course”, he answered taking out his phone to text Em.  
 _I’m bringing Mavi. Is it ok with you?_  
He knew it was a silly question: she would be happy to see her, but he had to ask anyway.  
 _My little princess is always welcome :)_ Of course. 

*** 

“Come on, Stephen, tell me something about the second season, my daughter says nothing to me, no matter how hard I beg her!”, Emily’s mum asked Stephen, who laughed at her petition. They were havind a glass of wine before having dinner.  
“Mum, we can’t say anything, it’s prohibited”.  
Stephen considered the question. “Well, there have been many Olicity moments so far”.  
Emily looked at him like telling him of.  
“Good!” her mum shouted, happily.  
“Oliver even saves Felicity”.  
“Stephen!”, Emily exclaimed half amused, half annoyed. If he told her mum that, she would be hassling her all day. He grinned. “Oh, and they kissed after that”, he answered. Emily’s mum covered her mouth with both hands. Emily couldn’t help laughing, he was always teasing people with false spoilers. Then, the bell door rang. She stood up. “Will you shut up while I’m gone? Can you at least do that?”, she teased him.  
“I’ll try...”, he replied with a provocative smile, which made her heart race, so she rushed to reach the door.  
She didn’t check the peephole on the door, she just opened and her surprise couldn’t be bigger.  
“Ian...” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there!  
> Must admit I felt butterflies in my stomach while writing this chapter. I guess I get into the character too much. But I really loved writing it (well, I always do, but this was kind of special, so I hope it is special for you too). 
> 
> Thank you all of you! 
> 
> Xx


	9. "But we can't"

“Come on, Stephen, tell me something about the second season, my daughter says nothing to me, no matter how hard I beg her!”, Emily’s mum asked Stephen, who laughed at her petition. They were havind a glass of wine before having dinner.  
“Mum, we can’t say anything, it’s prohibited”.  
Stephen considered the question. “Well, there have been many Olicity moments so far”.  
Emily looked at him like telling him of.  
“Good!” her mum shouted, happily.  
“Oliver even saves Felicity”.  
“Stephen!”, Emily exclaimed half amused, half annoyed. If he told her mum that, she would be hassling her all day. He grinned. “Oh, and they kissed after that”, he answered. Emily’s mum covered her mouth with both hands. Emily couldn’t help laughing, he was always teasing people with false spoilers. Then, the bell door rang. She stood up. “Will you shut up while I’m gone? Can you at least do that?”, she teased him.  
“I’ll try...”, he replied with a provocative smile, which made her heart race, so she rushed to reach the door.  
She didn’t check the peephole on the door, she just opened and her surprise couldn’t be bigger.  
“Ian...”  
He was standing right there, with a bottle of wine in his hands. He smiled, feeling a little bit awkward. She was open-mouthed. Of all the people in the world, he was the last one she could expect to come.  
“Hi, Em”, he said. “I brought wine”, he added raising the bottle.  
Emily looked at the bottle of wine and then at him, with astonishment.  
“Ian, what are you doing here?”  
She might have sounded a bit rude, but she was always very direct, very straightforward, so it didn’t shock Ian, who was already rather used to her reactions.  
“Your mum invited me, didn’t she tell you?”  
“My mum?” Emily was completely lost. When the hell had they talked?  
“Yeah, when I visited her the other day”.  
‘Of course’, she thought. She had told him he could pass by the hospital whenever he wanted, so he must have done that and her mother hadn’t told her anything about it. Her mum and her bad memory.  
“Ah, good”, she replied feeling stupid. She didn’t know what to say. Thus, she told him to come in and they went to the living room, where the others were.  
“Ian, welcome”, Emily’s mum said, standing up to kiss him on his cheek as a greeting.  
“Hello, Vanessa”, he said.  
Ian, seeing Stephen, felt a little bit bad, as if he was interrupting something.  
“Wow, I didn’t know you had more guests, I can come another day if you want…”  
“No, stay”, Stephen said standing up. “I’ll leave, don’t worry. Besides, Mavi must be tired, so…”  
Emily put her hands on her hips. “You two shut up and sit down, will you?” she ordered them, really desperate.  
Everyone shared a smile. “As you wish”, Ian agreed.  
“At your service”, Stephen joked, doing what she had said.  
They opened the bottle of wine Ian had brought, even though there was another one already opened since they didn’t want him to feel bad.  
“So, Ian, tell me, did you buy the car you told me the other day?”, Vanessa asked him.  
Emily frowned, not knowing what they were talking about.  
“I wanted to get a new car”, Ian explained to Stephen and Emily. “So yesterday I bought it. It is a black BMW”.  
Stephen whistled with amazement. “God, men, that’s good, uh?”  
Ian nodded smiling, proud of his car. “Yes, it’s a beast”.  
‘Men…’ Emily thought.  
“And by the way, Ian, how was your Spanish Day at school? The one you told me”, she wanted to know.  
“Great, we had so much fun and they really enjoyed it. They want to do more things like that, which is amazing”.  
Stephen agreed. “You’re lucky. Students are not usually that participative”.  
“That’s it, I’m totally surprised by their eagerness”.  
“Well, you deserve it”, Vanessa said.  
While Emily and Ian were dating, Vanessa and he got close and Vanessa really loved him as a son, so she was incredibly happy for him.  
“Hey, Ian, and if you are proficient in Spanish, English and French, don’t you think schools in Spain or France would kill to hire you? I think that would be a wonderful opportunity for you”, Stephen told him.  
He smiled calmly. “Sure, it is, but my life is here. All the people I care about are here, so I find no reasons to leave”, he added looking at Emily.  
Emily blushed. She felt really uncomfortable and the silence that came afterwards didn’t help.  
“Who wants more wine?”, she said standing up and went to the kitchen.  
“Well, I’m going to bed”, Vanessa told them. She said goodbye to them and followed her daughter to the kitchen.  
“You’re going to sleep?” Emily asked her.  
She kissed her in her forehead and said: “yes, I’m tired”.  
“Ok, we won’t make much noise, I promise.”  
Then, her mum approached her and told her to the ear: “Be careful with these two”.  
Emily stood there, half confused, half intrigued. What did her mum mean? Anyway, she came back to the living room and found them talking about Arrow. How typical.  
“Oh no…”, she said with a grin.  
“What?”, Ian asked worried.  
“You should know by now that once Stephen starts talking about Arrow, he doesn’t stop for at least two hours”, she joked and Ian laughed.  
Stephen pretended a laugh, as if he was annoyed, but obviously he wasn’t.  
“Very funny, Rickards…”, he said.  
Ian sat up straight and said: “No, but honestly, you’re a lucky guy, Stephen”.  
Stephen’s eyebrows rose. “Am I?”  
“Yeah, you’ve kissed almost every woman in Arrow. I mean… Wow!”  
They laughed. “Right, except for Willa and Susanna Thompson…”, Stephen agreed.  
“Well, and Emily”, Ian reminded him.  
“I’m not an easy girl, you know…”, she replied with a grin.  
“Then I’m luckier than you”, Ian asserted categorically.  
Emily and Stephen shared a look and, thanks God, Mavi started to cry. Stephen was about to go to check on her when Emily stood faster than him.  
“I’ll go, don’t worry”, she rushed to say, she wanted to disappear in that very moment.  
Stephen cursed her. What was he supposed to say now to Ian?  
“Hey, ehm… Stephen, can I ask you something?”, Ian said once Emily was gone.  
Given Ian’s tone and the fact that he had lowered his voice, Stephen knew he wasn’t going to like what he had to say.  
“Sure”, he replied anyway.  
“Do you know if Emily is dating someone?”  
Stephen’s stomach cringed. Was that a statement of intent? Stephen knew Ian wanted to get Emily back, in fact he had been insinuating all night, but that was one thing and directly asking about Emily’s love life was another thing. Was she single? Yes. Did he want her to be with Ian? No, honestly he didn’t. Actually, he didn’t like the idea of seeing her with anyone, really. Why? He had no idea. Since when? Less idea even. He had seen her with other boys before and it hadn’t been a big deal. Why did he care now?  
“No, she’s single”, he finally answered, much to his regret.  
Ian’s eyes lit up. “And do you think I have any chance with her again? I mean… I’ve tried to move on since we broke up, but I can’t. She’s way too good, so… what do you say? Would she like to come back with me?”  
Stephen hesitated. It was always difficult to know what was in Emily’s mind. But, even though he didn’t want her to date anyone, he still knew she should, that it was the best that could ever happen to her. So he replied “I hope so, Ian”.  
“Em is pure gold, isn’t she?”  
Stephen nodded. “She is, indeed”.  
And it was true. She was amazing and he loved spending time with her. Despite her age, he always learnt something from her.  
Then, they heard her coming.  
“She’s sleeping again. She must have had a nightmare”.  
Suddenly, Ian stood up with his hands in his pockets. “Well, I should probably go, tomorrow I have to get up early”, he explained.  
So Stephen and he shook hands and Emily escorted him to the door.  
“Thanks for coming”, she said and she added: “Even though I didn’t know you were coming”.  
He smiled. “Thank your mum, then, for inviting me”.  
She nodded.  
“See you, Ian.”  
He kissed her cheeck with tender.  
“See you, Em.”  
She waited till he took the elevator and then she went in. She found Stephen taking his jacket.  
“I should go too”, he started to say. But Emily came closer to him and grabbed his arm.  
“Stay. Just a little while. Please…”, she begged him.  
He smiled. “Well, on second thought I’ll stay…”  
They sat down next to each other, their shoulders in physical contact. There was complete silence, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. They feel relaxed, calm.  
“How did you know?”, she suddenly asked.  
“What?”  
They weren’t looking at each other, but into the space.  
“How did you know Cassandra was the one you wanted to spend the rest of your life with?”  
He shrugged his shoulders. “Because I couldn’t imagine my life without her”, he answered.  
“And do you still think so?”. He looked at her, shocked by her question, so she rushed to solve the situation. “Sorry, I shoudn’t have asked you that. I just... I was wondering if... I’d like to believe true love is forever”.  
Stephen crossed his legs, accommodating himself in the sofa and then faced her.  
“What happens, Em?”  
She sighed. “I wish I knew”, she said with a lifeless gaze.  
They remained silent for a while. Then, thinking it had to do with Ian and the possible feelings Emily could have for him, he said: “Just so you know, Ian’s a good guy, so you shoudn’t worry about that”.  
Emily looked at him with desperation. “Tell me something I don’t know”.  
“What’s the problem then, Emily?”  
She took a deep breath. ‘You’, she thought. But, instead of saying it, she flexed her legs, surrounded them with her arms and said: “Just a lot to think...”  
Suddenly, Stephen put his left arm over her shoulders and got her closer to him, making her leaning her head againt his shoulder.  
“I’d like to be like this forever, she admitted bashfully.  
He sighed sadly.  
“So do I”.  
“But we can’t”, she added.  
“But we can’t”, he repeated, as if trying to convince himself.  
“Geez”, she mumbled.  
Then, she couldn’t see his face, but she knew he was smiling and that made her smile too. She was messed up, true, but Stephen always calmed her down. He had that effect on her: he was the only one who could make her heart pounce and make her feel safe and in peace at the same time. Then, without being aware of that, she fell asleep. In that moment, he looked at her. She was sleeping, but she was smiling and he wondered how anyone could be so beautiful. He stood up carefully not to wake her up, holding her head and resting it on the couch. He crouched next to her and stared at her for a while. Her breathing was rhythmic and regular and she seemed to be relaxed. He moved a lock of her hair out of her face and touched her cheek fondly. _Em’s pure gold, isn’t she?_ , Ian had said before, and he was right. How could anyone have such a big heart? She wasn’t perfect, of that he was sure. She was impulsive, hyperactive, very direct and naïve, but he realised he liked her imperfections. They made her be who she was; they made her special. Then, she murmured ‘Mavi’. Stephen smiled. When did he get to care so much about her? When did his heart decide to flip every time he saw her?  
‘This is wrong’, he thought, shaking his head. He had to be confused because things with Cassandra weren’t that great lately, that had to be all. So he stood up, took Mavi and went home. He needed to see Cassandra. He needed to make peace with her. He needed everything to be like always. He needed to get Emily out of his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! 
> 
> First of all, thank you all and each of you :)   
> Also, as you may see, things are starting to get serious, so you can expect some changes of direction from now on.   
> Finally, next Monday I'm going on a trip, so that week I'll be missing (so no chapter) and I don't know if I will be able to post a new chapter before Monday. So please, this time you need to be a little bit patient with me, sorry. 
> 
> Hope you like it and, as always, please, feel free to comment :) 
> 
> Xx


	10. 'What are you playing at?'

“Emily… wake up…”, Vanessa murmured moving her daughter slowly to wake her up.  
Emily calmly opened her eyes and, when she saw her mother, her first instinct was to look at her right side, looking for Stephen. But he wasn’t there.  
“Come on, hurry up or you’re gonna be late”, her mum insisted.  
Emily checked the time.  
“Shit…”, she said, standing up faster than ever and going directly to the bathroom. She had a quick shower, she put on her favourite jeans, a red t-shirt and her black convers and she left. On her way to the set, she listened to her iPod. It always calmed her down. However, that day everything seemed to be against her, and the song that was played at that moment proved it: 

‘Hey Stephen  
I know looks can be deceiving  
But I know I saw a light in you  
As we walked  
We were talking  
I didn't say  
Half the things I wanted to’

‘What the hell…?’, she thought. 

‘Of all the girls  
Tossing rocks at your window  
I'll be the one waiting there  
Even when it's cold  
Hey Stephen  
Boy you might have me believing  
I don't always have to be alone’

“You’ve got to be kidding me”, she said and a woman next to her looked at her in a strange way. Emily just turned her back on her. 

‘Hey Stephen  
I’ve been holding back this feeling  
So I got some things to say to you, ha  
I've seen it all so I thought that I'd  
Never see nobody shine the way you do’

“Damn you, Taylor Swift”, she whispered to herself, turning off the iPod. She had had enough. Maybe music was not the right option that day. Maybe that day was doomed to be a bad day. But maybe, only maybe. 

*** 

Stephen always tried not to wake up Cassandra because he had to get up early and she could sleep a bit more, but this morning was different. They hadn’t talked since they had had the argument and Stephen needed to be OK with her. He was on the bed, knelt by Cassandra, staring at her. It would be very nice to say that his heart skipped a beat then. That he smiled like a fool. That he would have been like this all day. But the truth was… he didn’t feel that way. And the worst thing was that he had indeed felt like that the night before, staring at Emily. Something was wrong with him, so he did the only thing he could think of to focus on Cassandra and get Emily out of his head. He started to kiss Cassandra’s neck. Short and soft kisses, enough to wake her up.  
“Uhm…”, she groaned, opening her eyes. “Stephen, what are you-  
He cut her with a kiss. “I’m apologizing”, he answered.  
“And I forgive you, but isn’t it too early to… do this?”, she asked astonished.  
He grinned. “Maybe, but since when is that a problem?”, he asked, lifting her t-shirt and kissing her belly. She moaned.  
“Ok, maybe it’s not so early after all”, she agreed amused and then she kissed him. 

*** 

Emily took advantage of a short break they had to go to her trailer, chill out and, above all, make some adjustments on her iPod.  
“Nope… neither… out…”, she was mumbling.  
Then, when Colton came in and saw her talking to her iPod, he asked: “What the hell are you doing?”  
“Deleting all of the Taylor Swift’s songs”.  
“Why?”  
She stopped what she was doing to look up at him for a second. “Unless you want to wallow in misery, it’s for the best, trust me”.  
Colton was totally lost. “Ok… what’s wrong with you?”  
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing”.  
He rested his back on the wall and crossed his arms. “Uhm… and now can you be honest with me?”  
“I _am_ being honest with you!”  
“I wasn’t born yesterday, Em”, he told her, defiant.  
She sighed, desperate. “Colton, please, I’m fine”.  
He nodded. “Ok, if you say so… but I’ll be here to listen to you whenever you’re ready to talk”, he reminded her just before leaving her alone.  
She thought for a second how little she deserved such a good friend and then she continued with her deleting work. Suddenly, the door opened again.  
“Now what?!”, she shouted.  
It was Mark and he seemed concerned. “I’m afraid this is not a good time to come…”  
She shook her head, she felt horrible. “No, sorry, I thought it was Colton. Tell me, Mark”.  
“I just wanted to make sure you remember that since tonight the first episode of this second season is aired, we are going to tweet it live”.  
“Yeah, I know”.  
He grinned. “Try to make it cool, Em. We need feels”.  
“Sure, I will”.  
And then he left. So, that night she had not only to watch the episode with Stephen, but also to tweet it live with him, who had been ignoring and mistreating her all day. What was he playing at? They had only said ‘hello’, ‘good’, ‘great’ and things like that, apart from the lines of the scenes. She felt kind of disappointed. Last night he was hugging her on her sofa, claiming he would like to be like that forever and today she was lucky if he glared at her. So yeah, she was upset and mad at him and the last thing she wanted to do was to be even more time with him that day. But, as always, work came first. 

That night, they all were ready to watch the episode. Well, all except for Katie, who couldn’t make it, and Susanna, who had to look after her grandson. Emily always sat next to Colton, but when she had arrived, he was beside Stephen, and she didn’t feel like talking to him nor being near him, so she sat next to David. Well, Stephen wouldn’t have talked to her anyway, so… Since she didn’t sit next to Colton, everyone was a little surprised for that, especially Colton, who was rather suspicious, but they let it go. And the episode began.  
“Lian Yu…”, Willa said. “Such a Paradise”.  
“and here comes Tarzan”, David joked when Oliver appeared on top of a tree, shouting at Dig and Felicity.  
 _God, you’re really sweaty_ , Emily tweeted.  
She didn’t feel like telling jokes to Stephen, but she thought their fans would be very happy with that.  
“Felicity’s great”, Colton commented, and everyone agreed.  
Emily had noticed how subtly Stephen had looked at her during the ‘sweaty’ scene, but she had ignored him. After passing over her, now what? He wanted her to act as if nothing had happened? Then, she saw he had tweeted _No coconuts, but I am happy to see you_. ‘Ok…’, she thought.  
“Wow, Rochev is a badass!”, Paul joked and everyone laughed.  
“And now the lovebirds save each other”, Willa said with a loving tone, making allusion to when Felicity and Oliver fly through a window.  
 _Awesome scene. God bless our stunts_ , Stephen tweeted, and Emily retweeted it.  
 _Oh detective, my detective_ , Emily wrote, referring to Quentin.  
“Oh, Tommy… I miss Collin”, Colton said.  
“Excuse me, but so what?”, Willa repeated mimicking Felicity, making Em smile.  
Emily clapped excited when Colton (Roy) appeared. “My boy…”  
He made a heart with his hands and Emily winked at him. She realised Stephen was really serious and was gazing daggers at her.  
 _You like watching me do that? @EmilyBett_ , Stephen wrote, referring to the salmon ladder, which Felicity had kept in the new lair.  
Emily opened her eyes when she saw it. Was that a direct question to her? ‘Feels’, Mark had told her. Yeah, but she couldn’t do that right now. She couldn’t help it.  
 _That’s our Felicity_ , she answered, avoiding any kind of problem or misunderstanding. Stephen made no sense.  
“You’re so cute!”, Willa said when Felicity and Oliver were talking at the end of the episode, when she told him ‘If it’s online I can find it’ and he just sort of thanks her for helping him realise there was another way.  
Emily pretended a smile, and so did Stephen. Hell, yeah, they were cute together.  
“You must practice those looks, right? Because you guys have so much chemistry…!”, Willa insisted.  
Colton noticed how uncomfortable Emily was.  
“We’re good actors, I guess”, Emily replied. “Isn’t this what everything is about?”  
And Stephen added: “Yes, making it believable even when there is nothing”  
Emily looked at him, upset. ‘When there is nothing’, those words echoed in her head. Another affront. Another scratch in her heart.  
“Of course, of course”, Willa answered. 

Finally, the first episode of the second season finished. They all whistled and clapped and celebrated the hard work and then they left little by little. Emily wanted to avoid Stephen, so she said she had to go to the toilet to give time for him to go. So she went there and stared at herself in the mirror. Five minutes. She just had to wait for five minutes till he was gone. She stirred her hair to give it volume, rinsed her face since she was a bit sleepy and washed her hands. She checked her phone. She had waited enough. So she took a deep breath and went out.  
She hadn’t walked three steps when she heard: “About time you got out”.  
She turned around and saw Stephen resting on the wall right next to the toilet with his hands on his pockets. She frowned.  
“And what are you doing here?”  
“Isn’t it obvious? Waiting for you”, he answered.  
She was shocked; she wasn’t expecting that, so she didn’t approach him, she didn’t dare to.  
“Why does it surprise you so much?”  
She rolled her eyes. “Because, call me crazy, but last time I checked it you were totally ignoring me, so excuse me if this appears to me a little weird”, she explained, annoyed.  
He abandoned the wall and took a couple of steps.  
“I know, that’s why I was waiting on you”, he replied.  
She shook her head. “This is nonsense, Stephen”.  
“Are you mad at me?”  
She sighed. “Yes, I’m mad at you”.  
“For ignoring you?”  
She puffed and turned around, ready to go away, but he was faster and grabbed her arm. “Stephen, what are you playing at?”, she asked facing him.  
“What do you mean, Em?”  
She let go of his hand. She didn’t want to talk because she knew she would talk way too much, that she would reveal a lot of information and that it would end up in bad terms, but she had reached the point of no return.  
“One day you’re so good with me, watching films with me, hugging me and telling me you want to be like that for the rest of your life and today you’re an asshole, you ignore me and basically you treat me like shit, **that’s** what I mean. And don’t get me wrong, I know you’re married and you have a daughter, I’m not a fool. But it only makes things worse because I don’t get it, Stephen. And like I said, I have no idea what you’re playing at!”  
She was breathless when she finished, but she felt relieved. She had been holding her feelings and she needed to explode. He looked down, visibly affected by her words.  
“I’m sorry”, he whispered.  
“Yeah, but that’s not going to change anything, Stephen. What’s going on with you? With us?”  
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”  
He was now staring at her and that was the kind of look that killed Emily.  
“You see? You’re doing it again”, she said, as a complaint.  
“What?”  
“You can’t look at me like that, don’t you get it?”  
“How?”  
She moved her hands very quickly out of her nervousness. “With… like… just… like that, Stephen, like that, you know perfectly well what I’m referring to”.  
He took some steps towards her.  
“And why not?”  
“Because… it feels wrong”.  
There was a brief silence in which they stared at each other. There they were, in the middle of the corridor, next to the women’s toilet, with only a meter of distance between them.  
“What has changed, Stephen? We were friends, we _are_ friends, but now I feel something in my stomach every time you touch me, and I don’t know what happened or what to do”.  
He was suffering. He felt horrible, but still they needed to have that conversation.  
“I feel the same, Em. We need to fix this.”  
“I don’t know how”, she confessed.  
“Neither do I”.  
“Maybe you were right about ignoring me”, she finally said.  
He frowned. “What?”  
“Maybe we should separate from each other for a while”.  
He showed a sad smile. “It seems complicated when we have to work together and share some ‘romantic’ moments from time to time”.  
She nodded. “I know. But… still I think we should try. So no more dinners together, no more films, no more… nothing. Just work. Here. With everybody else”.  
He had been thinking about something for a while now, and even though it was difficult for him to say it, he knew he had to.  
“I think you should call Ian”, he said.  
Emily look at him confused.  
“He loves you. You should give him a chance.”  
She nodded. “I’ll give it a thought”.  
Then, he ended the distance and very slowly embraced her. It felt as a goodbye. They were going to see each other the next day, but still it feels like a farewell. Actually, in a way it was.  
“I’m sorry if I caused you any problem with Cassandra.”  
They separated a bit to face each other.  
“I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings”.  
She was hurt, indeed. But she knew he was too. And it only made everything worse.  
“You’re so young, Em… You’ll find someone. Someone who really deserves you. Maybe it’s Ian, maybe it’s another guy. But you will, eventually.”  
She was about to cry, but she didn’t want to cry in front of him.  
“Yeah…”, that was all she could say.  
“And I’m sure in a few months we will be laughing about this. Trust me”.  
She nodded, although she didn’t believe it.  
He kissed her cheek and whispered: “Good night, Em”.  
He waited for some seconds, but she couldn’t say a word. So he smiled briefly and left. 

She had been holding on her tears, but now that she was alone, she let herself go. She considered her options: she could go home and deal with her mother’s ‘I told you so’, she could stay there a little bit or she could call a friend. She chose the third one. 

_You’re right. I’m not fine_ , she texted Colton. He answered immediately.  
 _Where a u?_  
Luckily, he was still pretty near, so she just walked like five/seven minutes until she saw him. They stood there, motionless, staring at each other and she smiled bitterly, with her make-up mascara running all over her face. Colton approached her and hugged her tightly, trying to cheer her up.  
“Stephen?”, he asked praying he was wrong.  
She nodded, sobbing.  
Colton looked around and realised it wasn’t the appropriate place to talk about it, so they went to Colton’s apartment. There she told him everything and more and he listened carefully.  
“Ok, babe, I promise you from now on we’re gonna have so much fun, you won’t even remember his name. We’ll go to the beach, to pubs, to different cities… Anything you want”.  
She laughed, though she knew he meant it.  
“You are so fucking great…”, she murmured.  
He shook his head and put his arm over her shoulders. “No, _you_ are, and nobody in this world will ever compare to you”.  
She smiled, this time a true smile, and she realised that, having Colton by her side, she had nothing to worry about. She was young, she had such amazing friends, she liked her job and she had a great family to count on. So she decided to do what was the most logical thing: to live life, surround herself by the people who loved her and avoid pain in any possible way, which in this case meant avoiding Stephen. However, there was a little thing she needed to do in order to completely get Stephen out of her head and she didn’t wait any longer to do it:  
 _Any plans for tomorrow night?_  
The reply was received rather soon.  
 _Being with you_  
And she smiled again. He always got to make her feel happy. He always was there for her. And now, more than ever she needed him. Now, more than ever, she needed Ian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! Eventuall I've been able to post a new chapter :) But remember that next week I'll be travelling, so do not expect any other chapter till at least Monday 7th. I'm sorry :( 
> 
> And now, regarding the chapter... Sorry if this hurt your feelings, but Stemily can't happen just now, I'm sure you understand it and agree with me.  
> Anyway, please, share your thought, as always. 
> 
> Thank you so much, 
> 
> Xx
> 
> P.S.-For the record, I love Taylor Swift, I'm a huge fan of her music and if you're interested in listening to the song I mentioned, here you have the link:   
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wswsq67wTIs


	11. Three conclusions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! Just some comments:   
> sorry for posting so so so late, but I've been travelling and a little bit busy lately, sorry. 
> 
> In this chapter we get Emily's and Stephen's points of view (POV), so I hope you like it and everything feels clearer that way. Just tell me if you prefer their POV or you think a neutral tone is better or maybe a mix. 
> 
> Thank you in advance ;)

Emily’s POV 

The music resounded in my head and the alcohol was running through my veins. I was dancing like there was no tomorrow. I danced with almost everyone; I could never say ‘no’ to dance. And there I was: at Colton’s, surrounded by ten or twelve people, being wild and free. No fears, no regrets. Just living life.   
“Round of shots!”, Colton shouted calling everyone’s attention.   
We all approached a wooden table placed in the left side of the living room and picked a small glass which very soon was full of tequila (On Colton’s, of course).   
“Haynes, bring some lemon, will you?”, Karen asked him.   
The truth is, I didn’t feel like drinking any more alcohol, but I didn’t want to spoil the party, so I went with it anyway.   
“Ok, at one go”, Colton said.   
We all got ready, shots in hand and at the count of three, we all drank to down.   
My throat burnt like hell. Colton elbowed me.   
“It’s strong, isn’t it?”, he asked me, referring to the tequila.   
I nodded, still affected by the shot. “No doubts…”  
Then, Karen came up with the idea of playing twister. I’ve loved that game ever since I was a child, so I didn’t hesitate and played. I used to win every time I played; however, being a little bit tipsy as I was, I found it really difficult to keep my balance. Well, me and everybody else. So we were on the floor most of the time, laughing and having fun. I loved my life. I loved my job. I loved my friends. I loved my family. And yet I felt my life was not complete. That something was missing. Something or someone. Probably… him. Four months had passed since we had that last conversation in which we decided to stay apart from each other and, even though I’ve been having so much fun with my friends, keeping my distance with Stephen and my feelings for him had got cold, I still felt something that I couldn’t describe whenever I looked at him.   
Then, my mobile vibrated. It was Ian. We were not dating, but we weren’t just friends either. We just happened to make out from time to time. Call it friends with benefits, call it whatever you want, but we had no official nor formal relationship. And for me it was fine. I didn’t need restraints in that moment. I needed freedom and independence. And Ian gave me that. Besides, he helped me not to think of somebody else, which was great.   
_See u tomorrow_   
He was coming to the set tomorrow morning. Good. 

***   
Meanwhile, at Stephen’s place, there was a dinner going on. The two Amell boys and their girls were having dinner together, just trying to relax a little bit. Mavi was being taken care of by Stephen’s mother, so they didn’t have to worry about anything.   
“By the way, any news about the Tomorrow People’s renewal?”, Stephen asked his cousin Robbie.   
He made a sad face. “No, nothing. But it seems it’s going to be complicated…”, Robbie explained.   
His girlfriend, Italia, put her hand over his shoulder, comforting him.   
“Don’t worry, love, everything will be alright, you’ll see”.   
“Hope so…”, he answered, and they kissed briefly.   
“Italia, why don’t you tell me about your new project?”, Cassandra said while serving some more wine.   
“Oh yes… We’ve been after this project for many years and it is finally happening. It’s a new TV series and it’s called ‘Chasing Life’. It’s great. Well, the protagonist has cancer, so it would appear a tragic show, but it tries to deal with the issue from a comic and humoristic point of view”, Italia told them really excited.   
“I’m so happy for you, Italia”, Stephen said. “Let’s toast”.   
They all raised their glasses. “To us. To a brilliant future”, Stephen said.   
“And to love”, Cassandra added, looking at him tenderly.   
He smiled fondly and kissed her. “To love”, he agreed, and they toasted.   
They kept on talking some more time and then, when they finished, both cousins picked up the plates and took them to the kitchen to wash them. So, while they were talking about the last King’s match, the girls began to talk about men.   
“How are things between you and Stephen going?”, Italia asked her with concern.   
“Well, I know I told you some time ago that we were having some problems, but the truth is ever since Christmas more or less, things have been great”.   
Italia smiled, relieved. “Good, because I was so worried…”  
“You don’t need to worry anymore, we’re more in love than ever”, Cassandra assured her.   
Suddenly, both men entered the room.   
“Uh… two women alone…”, Robbie joked.   
“What were you talking about?”, Stephen asked smiling.   
“Men, of course”, Italia replied.   
Cassandra stood up and hugged her husband. “Just about how much we love you, guys”.   
Robbie grinned. “Man, we have the best girls in the whole world”, he said.  
And Stephen knew he was right. Cassandra was awesome. She was so lovely and nice to him and she had so much patience with him, that he had no other choice but love her. And he had taken advantage of these time apart from Emily to focus on his wife again and reconnect with her, which he did. However, he missed feeling butterflies in the stomach. In fact, the last time he had felt that way had been with Emily. But that ended. That had to end. And he was over it now. Wasn’t he? 

*** 

Stephen’s POV 

“Slade was very clear: I come alone or Thea dies”, I said as Oliver Queen.   
We were shooting episode 2x18, ‘Deathstroke’, and it was a scene inside the Arrow cave where Oliver wanted to rescue Thea (who had been kidnapped by Slade), but the whole team tries to stop him.   
“Ollie, this is another one of Slade’s games”, Caity said as Sara. I happened to get on with her due to the number of scenes we had together. “And unless-  
“NO! WHAT I CAN’T DO, SARA, IS NOTHING!”, I shouted, maddly. I felt my veins in my head and neck, as if about to explode. “WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF IT WERE LAUREL, OR YOU MOTHER OR YOUR FATHER? AND YOU CAN’T-  
“Go”, a voice asserted, stopping me from keeping screaming and making me breath for a moment. It was Emily as Felicity. She was behind Caity with her arms crossed. Diggle and Roy were at on side. I then looked at Emily calmy, considering what she just said. Suddenly she took some steps towards me.   
“Go get Thea. Stop Slade”. She said with determination. She was closer to me than I wanted. “Do whatever it takes. End this once and for all”.   
I stared at her for a few seconds. She had used such a low voice... and then I left.   
“Cut!”, the director said. “Good, though we will do it again these afternoon. Now we’ll have lunch break”.   
“Hey, hottie, you sound so determined I fell in love with you!”, Caity joked about Felicity’s speech. Emily laughed.  
“Yeah, you know, I usually stir passions”.   
Colton put his arm around her waist. “Don’t tell me... Look who’s there”.   
She looked where he had pointed, and so did I. It was Ian. Emily came closer to him, they exchanged a few words and they kissed. I can’t deny how shocked I was. Ian had been on set some more times, but they always seemed to be friends, nothing else.   
“You coming to lunch?”, David asked me, taking me back to Earth.   
“Yeah, come on”, I replied.   
As usual, we all had lunch together. I sat between David and Katie and opposite Emily and Ian. Cool, isn’t it?   
“Yeah, she hurt her leg, I hope she can co me tomorrow...”, I heard Caity saying. Apparently, her stunt had hurt herself while shooting one scene.   
“Gosh... how bad”, Emily said.   
“Thanks God you don’t get to do many action scenes. I don’t want you to get hurt”, Ian murmured to Em’s ear. It was just supposed to be heard by her, but I did too. Maybe I was too attentive, who knows. But I heard it. And the smile she gave him killed me. Literally. And I hated that feeling. I hated knowing Emily had so much power on me, especially after all this time we were apart. Did that mean nothing had changed? Was I still feeling the same? No, that was imposible. Maybe it was just that Ian annoyed me. But that didn’t make sense, I found him a nice guy. Then what?   
“Stephen!”, She shouted, suddenly. I was so distracted analysing the situation I hadn’t realised she had talked to me.   
“Sorry, what”, I answered.   
Now everyone was looking at me, probably wondering where my head was that day.   
“The ketchup, please”, she asked me.   
“Sure, here you have”.   
I felt strange. Like suddenly I wanted her to keep talking to me. And truth is we had been having these little and cordial exchanges ever since our famous conversation. But I wanted to know more. I wanted to know what was happening in her life. What was she doing with Ian. Anything. I wanted to talk to her, like the old times. And laugh. And chill out. And have fun.   
“You okay, man?”, David asked me, lowering his voice.   
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m just a little bit out today”, I said, not giving too much explanation.   
“Then focus, we need you 100% ready”.   
He was right. And so I did. I did my best to take Em out of my head just for several hours during the shooting.   
Later that day, we finished the day at about nine pm. I went to my trailer to change my clothes and wash my face and I sent Cassandra a text telling her I would be home in half an hour. However, when I got out, I saw Ian talking on the phone. He seemed worried. Finally, he hanged up.  
“Hey, Stephen, I gotta go, my sister’s car broke down and she needs me to pick her up and go to the garage, so please, can you tell Em I had to leave?”  
“Of course”.  
“Thank you!”, he exclaimed already leaving.   
And all of a sudden I found myself waiting for Emily, which was so, so weird.   
And there she was. She was putting something in her bag, so when she looked up and saw nobody but me, she appeared more than confused.   
“Hey... have you seen Ian?”, she asked frowning.   
“He told me to tell you his sister’s car broke down or something like that and that he had to go”.   
She puffed. “Great...”  
I leaned my head. “Is everything ok?”  
She stared at me for a moment, as if considering telling me the truth or not.   
“He was supposed to take me home, so I didn’t bring my car and nowI’ll have to sleep here”, she said half joking, half serious.   
And then I saw it, just there: my chance to check what was going on in my head. Or heart.   
“I can take you home, if you want to”, I offered.   
She looked hesitant.   
“Are you sure this is ok with you?”, she wanted to know.   
Of course she would doubt. We had to keep our distance and now I was offering her a lift. But I needed answers.   
“Positive”.   
She nodded slowly. “Ok... let’s go”.   
We went to the car in silence and, once inside, I knew I had 15 min to talk to her, which was the time it took us to get to her place.   
“So... you’re dating him?”  
She looked at me. “Does it matter?” Her guard was clearly up.   
“Just curious”, I said, though I know she didn’t buy it.   
“Curiosity killed the cat”.   
I coughed, a little uncomfortable. “I just saw you two kissing and, well, I wondered if you were together”.   
She tilted her head. “We’re just having fun. It’s not like we’re committing any crime or something, aren’t we?”  
I shook my head now. “Nope, it’s fine”.   
“Ouh, thanks for your permission, then”, she said with irony.   
I got a little bit angry, so I took advantage of the red ligth, I stopped the car and faced her.   
“Can we just have a normal conversation, please? I don’t wanna fight, I don’t want misunderstandings. I just wanna talk to you for ten minutes like friends. Like normal people. You think we can do that?”  
She looked down, and then took a deep breathe.   
“Sorry... Yeah, we can”.   
I turned on the radio. The song that was playing was ‘500 hundred miles’, by the Proclaimers.   
“Gosh, I love this song”, she said, resting her head on the seat.   
“Me too. It’s great. And it always cheers me up”.   
Silence again. But she ended with it when she started to sing.   
“When I go out, yeah, I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you”, she sang in a whistle.   
I joined her. “I'm gonna be the man who gets drunk next to you”, we both said.   
We looked into each other eyes and then we sang together the chorus, amused, shouting, rocking our bodies as much as the car allowed us to.   
“But I would walk five hundred miles and I would walk five hundred more  
just to be the man who walked a thousand miles to fall down at your door”.   
“Lalala”, I sang like crazy. She laughed and I couldn’t help laughing too.   
“Now I’ll picture you moving like a mad person whenever I listen to this song”, she commented.   
I smiled. “I’ll think of you too”.   
I think things got a little strange because she changed the subject.   
“By the way, how’s Mavi? I haven’t seen her in a while. She must be a giant now”.   
“She’s so beautiful... I’ll bring her to set next week, you’ll see”.   
“I’m sure I’ll drool over her...”, she answered smiling.   
“You will, definitely”.   
We remained silent till we got to her house, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. I kind of enjoyed the moment.   
“Well... we’re here. Thank you for the lift. You’re like my superman now, you know...”, she joked.   
I grinned. “You’re welcome, damsel in distress. Just call me whenever you need me to rescue you again”.   
She smiled tenderly. “I’ve missed you, Stephen”, she confessed without letting her smile go.   
“I’ve missed you too, Em”.   
“See you tomorrow?”  
“I can’t wait”, I replied and her smile grew bigger.   
She got off the car and, just before going away, she leaned on the window and I approached her as much as I could.   
“Just so you know... I’m not dating Ian”.   
I was speechless. “Good”, I said like a complete fool.   
She smiled again and turned around.   
I saw her getting into her building and then I realized two things: the first one, that Emily and I had behaved like nothing had happened between us, just like the old times, which I loved. And the second one, that she wasn’t with Ian and that made me the happiest man in the world, which led me to a third conclusion: I was not over her. And that was a big problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you have the song: 500 miles-the proclaimers
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM0sTNtWDiI
> 
> Enjoy it, I love it :) :)


	12. "Bye, smurf"

“You’re kidding, right?”, Emily told David. They were in the Arrow Cave, in a break, waiting for the director to tell them to shoot again.  
“No, I mean it”, David replied seriously. “I trained six hours a day before coming back to shoot season 2”.  
Emily’s jaw dropped. “Six hours? So you did nothing else in your life apart from training, I assume?”, she added, laughing.  
Stephen was training in the salmon ladder, but he was now staring at them. Especially her. She seemed so fresh, so innocent, so pure… She was a magnet to happiness. Then, he came up with an idea.  
“Hey, Em!”, he called her. She looked at him with a questioning face. “Can you help me with something?”  
She approached him slowly. “What do I have to do?”  
He took out his phone and showed it to her. “Do you see this? It’s a phone. It’s used to call people and tal-  
“Fuck you!”, she said giggling, hitting his arm and infecting him with laughter.  
“Ok, now seriously. People usually ask if it’s me who actually does the salmon ladder, so I thought of recording a video to prove it”.  
She nodded. “Fine. So… What do I get for recording you? 1000 dollars? A yacht? Maybe an apartment on the beach?”  
He smiled. “You’ll see”.  
She didn’t say anything else. He wouldn’t give her a thing, she knew it. But she didn’t expect anything either, she was just joking, so she thought he was just talking for talking’s sake.  
“Ok, tell me when you’re ready”, she said with phone in hand, capturing Stephen with the camera.  
“Now!”, he shouted.  
He began to do the salmon ladder and, meanwhile, Emily broadcast it.  
“Hey, everyone, this is Mr Amell showing off his huge physical skills... and abs”, she kept quiet for a moment, aware of the fact that he was trying not to laugh. “He’s not that strong, actually. In fact, there’s an invisible wire to which he’s hooked. I mean, buff… who does he think he is? The Arrow?”  
And this time, Stephen cracked up and slipped down.  
“Oh…”, Emily said without stopping the recording. “Are you sure you wanna do this?”  
He could notice the teasing tone. “Shut up and keep recording, smurf!”  
She smiled. Smurf? Why? Because she was shorter than him? Because she was wearing a blue dress? Maybe both of them?  
This time she remained silent while he was doing the salmon ladder, not wanting to distract him. It wasn’t until he finished and went down that she allowed herself to talk.  
“Hurray! You did it!”  
Stephen came closer with a smile on his face and took the phone from Emily’s hands. She thought he was going to say just a few words and stop the recording, but instead he put the phone in such a way both of them appeared on the screen.  
“Facebook! So…” he started still a little bit breathless. “Even though I failed miserably in my first attempt and I don’t wanna look at the gulty one...”, he said actually staring at Emily, which she answered to by making a funny face, “I think I made it clear it’s me who does this thing everytime it appears on the show”.  
“Yeah, I can confirm we work with Hulk, guys”, she said and he did his best to try to repress a grin, but it was impossible.  
“Well, Facebook friends, now go back to your lives and next time you see me in the salmon ladder, please, be aware it’s me utterly suffering”.  
“Byee”, she sang waving her hand.  
He put down the phone then and uploaded the video to his Facebook page.  
“By the way, why ‘smurf’? That’s new”, she wanted to know.  
“Why not? You meet all the requirements: short, blue and annoying”.  
Her immediate answer was to push him, half laughing. “Screw you, Stephen!”  
He faked an offended face. “How dare you?”  
“Stephen, to make up!”, someone shouted. They knew it was time to get apart.  
“By the way… I said I would give you something”, he said out of a sudden.  
“I know it was a joke, don’t worry. I just recorded you, I didn’t do any of a big deal”.  
He shook his head. “No, it wasn’t a joke. Meet me here after we finish the day.”  
And he left. She stood there, not knowing what to do or what to think. What did he want to give her? Or do to her? Anyway, the only thing she was sure of was that she couldn’t wait until that moment.  
“Hey!”, Colton said. He had been watching them and he couldn’t help himself.  
“Hi, Haynes, what’s up?”  
He shook his head slowly. “Not much. I was just looking at you and Stephen”.  
She realised he was using a weird tone of voice. “Oh, really?”  
“Yep. So… you’re close again? Mister husband of the year and you?”  
Emily rolled her eyes. “We’re friends again, yeah”.  
She turned away and pretended to play with one of Felicity’s computer when the truth was that she didn’t feel like facing Colton and, what was more important: facing the truth.  
“And that’s all you wanna be?” His friend?”, he asked her, following her and forcing her to look at him.  
“What I want doesn’t matter because that’s all we can be: friends. So…”  
Colton crossed his arms. “Em…”, he said with a parental tone.  
She got exasperated. “Ok. I don’t know, Colton. I have no idea. I don’t know if he’s just my friend, if this is physical attraction that would vanish if we were together or if I am in love with him and I’ll die of sadness… or heartbreak”.  
“Em, that’s not funny”.  
She sighed. “I know. But what do you want me to do? These past months without him… I mean, I was ok, yeah, but I felt empty and you know it, and you have no idea how distressing that is! So excuse me if I’m just trying to be happy”, she explained with total passion.  
“Ding, ding ding!”, Colton sang raising his hand, faking a bell. “Breaking news: he’s married!”  
“Ding, ding, ding!”, she mimicked him. “Breaking news: I KNOW!”  
“Ding, ding, ding! Breaking news: you’re the one who’ll get hurt after he comes back to his wife!”  
“Ding, ding, ding!”, she said, but then she rolled her eyes. “Oh, can we just stop doing that?”  
Colton was about to reply, when one of the producers shouted: “Colton, get ready! We’ll shoot in 10 minutes!”  
He looked at Emily with concern. “I gotta go, but for the record, I think you’re making a mistake with him. A huge one”, he told her just right before leaving.  
She sat in Felicity’s chair and took a deep breath. “Like I didn’t know already…”, she murmured to herself. 

***

Later that day, after lunch, Willa, Colton and Emily were having some ice-cream as they waited for their turn to shoot a scene. Once again, Willa was talking about her boyfriend’s family.  
“My mother-in-law’s birthday is next week and I don’t know what to get her. Any ideas?”, Willa asked hopeless. “Ouh, be careful, Colton, that chair is broken”, she added when Colton was about to sit down.  
Willa had finally met her boufriend’s family and, even though it was scary at the beginning, now it was a pain in the ass. More especifically, her mother-in-law was a pain in the ass and totally unbearable. She usually called Willa with the name of some exgirlfriend of her son and once she even invited her son’s ex to the house knowing Willa was coming.  
“What about arsenic?”, Colton proposed as a joke.  
She sighed. “Too mean to die, I’m afraid”.  
They all laughed, though.  
“And what about a picture of your boyfriend’s ex? Since she’s so into her...”, Emily suggested.  
“Ouh, yeah, she will probably like it!”  
Suddenly, there was a vibration. It was Emily’s phone. She checked it. It was a text from Ian. She read it and blocked the phone again, making a strange face.  
“Uh... who’s that? You made quite a face...”, Willa said with high interest.  
“Nobody”, Emily replied.  
Then Willa took the phone from her ad read the message out loud.  
“Can’t wait to see you. Pick you up tomorrow for lunch? Ian”, Willa read with a romantic intonation. “Oohh, Iaaan”.  
Emily tried to get back her phone, but her friend was faster. Willa looked at Colton, wanting him to join her in the teasing, but he didn’t. Of course he didn’t. He knew Emily didn’t care at all about Ian in that moment. Not in a romantic sense, at least.  
“Why don’t you answer?”, Willa asked.  
“Maybe later...”  
“But you’re gonna say ‘yes’, right?”, Willa insisted and Emily was losing her patience.  
“I don’t know, now give me the phone”.  
Willa gave it to her while laughing incredulously.  
“Come on, Ian’s great and quite handsome, to be honest. So why don’t you get any more serious with him again? It’s not like you have somebody else, don’t you’”  
Given their silence, Willa looked first at Emily and then at Colton and asked again: “Don’t you?”  
Then, since none of them said anything, she covered her face with both hands with surprise. “OMG, you’re dating another person!”  
“No, I’m not!”, she hurried to claim.  
“But you like him whoever it is”, Willa deduced.  
“Yeah...”, Colton murmured.  
Emily elbowed at him, wondering if he would ever shut up.  
“Why didn’t you tell me?”  
Emily felt trapped.  
“I don’t know... it’s complicated, I guess”.  
Colton leaned towards Willa and said in a low voice: “He’s in a relationship”.  
“OMG, how bad!”  
Emily gave him a threatening look. Suddenly, Willa’s phone rang.  
“It’s my boyfriend, I’ll be back in a minute”.  
Emily took advantage of the moment to confront her friend.  
“Don’t you ever shut up?”, she complained.  
“I didn’t do anything!”, he answered raising his hands as in self –defense.  
“You told her he was married”.  
“No, I didn’t”.  
She rolled her eyes. “Ok, you told her he was in a relationship!”  
Colton nodded. “That I did. So what? It could mean he has a wife, a girlfriend, a friend with benefits, a boyfriend or a lovely dog! It could be anyone in this planet!”  
She knew he was right, but even though she didn’t want to admit it.  
“I don’t care! From now on keep your mouth shut or I’ll never talk to you again! Understood?”  
Colton rolled his eyes. “Understood”.  
“Good, and now I’m gonna go before she comes back.Tell her Marc called me or something. And don’t say anything more, ok?”  
“Ok, Sir”.  
She looked daggers at him. Maybe it was funny for Colton, but she was really stressed about tis issue. Especially because she didn’t know what it was about actually. Hopefully, she would know that night. 

*** 

Emily finished shooting before Stephen, so she had to wait for him for about 45 minutes. In the meantime, she bit her nails. She was incredibly nervous. And she knew it would probably be nothing, but she couldn’t help but think that that night would be especial, one way or another. She was sitting on the floor against the wall when he finally arrived. It was very late and there were a very few people in the set, so there was silence.  
“I was beginning to think you had dumped me...”, she said playing the damsel in distress.  
He smiled. “Why would I do that?”, he asked with determination.  
She shrugged. “Don’t know...”.  
He clapped then to catch her attention. “Well, you wanna know the present I’ve got for you?”  
She nodded, noting how unsettled her stomach was.  
“Then stand up and come here”, he said approaching the salmon ladder.  
She stood up and followed him, totally lost.  
“What’s this?”, she asked.  
“The salmon ladder”.  
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know, but what are we doing here?”  
“I’m gonna teach you how to do it”, he said placing himself opposite it.  
Emily opened her eyes widely. “This is your present? Whoa, how lucky I am!”  
He knew she would react this way, so he had prepared the attack.  
“Yes. What? Are you afraid you can’t do it? Well, I could understand that, given your spaghetti muscles...”, he teased her, and it worked.  
She approached him with a defiant look and said: “Shut uo and tell what I have to do”.  
He smiled, amused.  
“Ok, grab the stick”, he told her and she did that.  
He took a couple of steps and all of a sudden, he was right after her, her back on her chest, feeling his breathing.  
“Separate your arms”, he said putting her hands further from each other.  
She had to remind herself to breathe, which was rather difficult having him so close to her.  
“Now, hold your abs to put up your lower body and then with the arms you put up the rest, ok? So the main effort goes out from the abs”, he explained to her at the same time he pressed his hand towards her belly. “You got it?”  
She nodded, though she didn’t even know what she was agreeing to. “Yeah...”  
“Ok, then go ahead”, he said, separating from her.  
She swallowed hard, looked up at the salmon ladder and wondered what the hell she was doing there.  
“Come on”, he interjected trying to cheer her up.  
She took a deep breath, grabbed hard the bar and did as he told her. She put up her lower body with the strength coming from her abs and the rest with her arms, but she almost fall down replacing the bar, making her release it.  
“Shit...”, she mumbled.  
Stephen came closer and placed himself behind her. “Do it again. This time I’ll help you”.  
She was sure it would be the death for her, but she tried again. This time, Stephen put his hands on her waist to help her push up and go up, which made her shudder and she wondered if he had noticed. She did the first push.  
“Ah! I did it!”, she shouted, swinging and forcing Stephen to stop her to prevent her from falling down.  
He smiled. “Yeah, now try the next one”.  
She focused and tried her best.  
“I did it again!”  
He couldn’t hold her anymore, except for her legs, but it was useless.  
“Emily, keep your concrentration!”  
But she wasn’t listening to him, she was way too excited to pay any attention to him. She was so excited to have been able to go up two bars, that she tried the third one almost without thinking and without any warning for Stephen. Then, she didn’t get it and went down inevitably, falling over Stephen, both of them ending up on the floor, with Emily resting on his chest. She looked at him to see if he was ok and she saw his lip bleeding.  
“Oh my God! You’re bleeding”, she said helping him stand up.  
“Yeah, you hit me with your head”.  
She brought a chair and made him sit down, taking his head back. She looked for some cloth and watered it. Then she came back and tried to clean the blood from Stephen’s lip. He complained a little, in pain.  
“Sorry...”, she whispered.  
Then, she put away the cloth and leaned down to examine his lip, completely focused until she realised how strange he was looking at her and how close they were. Just a few inches from each other. They stared into each other’s eyes for way too long, as if they were hypnotized. He lowered his eyes to her lips, and she felt her heart racing. She felt her knees failing, and he must have noticed too because he let her sit on top of him. He kept on looking at her, nothing made him look away. Then, he raised his hand to caress her cheek. She closed her eyes. She couldn’t handle it. She couldn’t handle his look anymore. Suddenly, when she thought she couldn’t help but kiss him, the chair they were sitting broke down and they both fell down. When they found themselves in the floor, they looked at each other and they started to laugh very hard. Maybe it was a way of letting go the previous tension, or maybe they were simply amused by how absurd the situation was. Probably both.  
“This is incredible...”, he murmured still laughing.  
She nodded, trying to stand up not to be over him any longer.  
“Absolutely...”.  
They finally stood and faced each other.  
“Well... I should probably go home. Tomorrow will be a long day.”  
He frowned.  
“Chicago, remember?”  
He nodded then. They had a Comic Con in Chicago and they were leaving tomorrow afternoon.  
“By the way, thank you for tonight. For your ‘present’, I mean”, she corrected herself.  
He smiled with sincerity. “You did it”.  
“Yeah... despite my spaghetti muscles”, she said remembering his words.  
He laughed. “I was just teasing you, you know”.  
“I know. I know...”, she answered.  
He sighed. “So... see you tomorrow?”  
She sighed back. “Positive”.  
“Bye, smurf”, he said while leaving and even though he wasn’t looking at her, he knew she was smiling. They didn’t know how they would handle everything had happened that night, but they knew they would sleep with a big smile on their faces. That for sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey people! 
> 
> I really had a great time writing this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did :)  
> And please, let me know what you think about it. This is one of my favourites so far :D
> 
> Thank you for your comments! 
> 
> Xoxo


	13. No turning back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there!
> 
> As you may notice, sometimes there are some similarities with reality, like Comic Con, but that's my poor attempt to make a parallelism between this story and real life :)

That morning, Stephen was preparing his luggage for Chicago. He, Emily, David and Robbie were going to the Comic Con to promote their shows and share a moment with the fans. He had a small baggage: they were staying there only for two days. Besides, he had never been really interested in fashion, so he didn’t pay any attention to what he was wearing, and most of the times he wore the same t-shirts (his favourite ones).   
“Have you packed your pyjamas?”, Cassandra asked him.   
She was around him, telling him what to take, as if he was a child.   
“Yes…”, he answered trying not to sound too annoyed.   
“And the toothpaste?”, she insisted.   
He then faced her, putting his hand on her face.   
“Yes. Listen, I really got this, so why don’t you have breakfast?”  
She sighed and looked down. “Am I being annoying?”  
He smiled a little. “Maybe…”  
Cassandra rolled her eyes, amused. “Ok, I’ll leave you alone. But don’t blame me later when you find out you forgot something…”  
She was about to go away, but she stopped cold and stared at his lip.   
“Hey, what happened to your lip?”, she asked raising his chin to have a better vision of it.   
“Nothing, just a silly accident on set”, he replied, turning his face.   
“Does it hurt?”  
He shook his head. “Not really”.   
She sighed. “You should be more careful”.   
_Yeah, tell Emily_ , he thought. Then, it struck him. Why hadn’t he told her the truth, that is, that the accident involved Emily falling over him? Because it wasn’t important? Or maybe because he would have had to explain why they were alone so late on set? He still couldn’t believe he and Emily almost kissed last night. What was he thinking? He was married and he had a daughter. He couldn’t be kissing women out there. He needed to focus. But when it came to Emily keeping the concentration was a difficult task…   
Finally, he finished packing and, once he said goodbye to Mavi, who was still sleeping, he kissed Cassandra and went away. He was meeting the rest at the airport. Their flight took off at 2 pm, so they had to be there at 12 pm, more or less. When he arrived at the airport, it took him some time until he saw the rest. He smiled widely when he saw Emily, who was showing something on her phone to Robbie.   
“Hey there!”, he greeted them. They all said hi and went to their gate since they didn’t have to check in their luggage.   
“How’s your lip?”, Emily asked Stephen while waiting at the gate.   
“It’s getting better”, he answered completely amused.   
Robbie and David were lost. “Lip? What did we miss?”  
Stephen smiled. “Emily fell over me and her head is so heavy, that she hit me and well… now you see my lip”, he explained, pointing out to his lip, which had a big mark.   
“My head is so heavy because is full of brilliant ideas”, she remarked.   
“Yeah… like doing the salmon ladder, can you guys believe she tried to do it yesterday? What a brilliant idea, yes”, Stephen teased her.   
She opened her mouth to reply, but what was she supposed to say? That they met when everyone else was gone? That they almost kissed in the process?   
“Em, that needs a lot of practice, you could have hurt yourself”, David told her in a parental tone.   
She looked daggers at Stephen, who was repressing a grin. “Yeah, yeah…”, she said, wanting the conversation to end, which it did. At least verbally, because they kept on staring at them half teasing each other, half needing to just look at each other’s eyes.   
Eventually, they entered the aircraft. Oddly enough, Stephen and Emily were sitting together and Robbie and David were on the row behind.   
“Hey, let’s take a selfie”, Emily suggested.   
Stephen took out his phone and they all moved closer.   
“Cheese”, Robbie said and Stephen took the picture, sending it to the others right after.   
Stephen showed Emily the picture.   
“Wow, you look like a bad boy…”, Emily teased him.   
Stephen grinned. “careful with me , babe”, he joked faking a very masculine and grave voice, and she laughed.   
Some minutes later, Emily fell asleep. Then, Stephen took advantage of the moment to take her phone and take some selfies of himself, playing the fool.   
“What are you doing?” Robbie asked him. He was the only one awake on the row behind.   
Stephen looked nervous, as if he had been caught doing something bad.   
“Just... teasing her, I guess”, he got to answer. Robbie frowned.   
“Fine...”  
A few hours later, they were finally in Chicago. They went to the hotel. Stephen and Robbie were sharing a room to cut down expenses and David and Emily had one for each of them. They were on the elevator on their way to the rooms and Emily was trying to convince them to go out.   
“My head is about to explode; I need to sleep a bit”, David said.   
“And I’m going to talk to Italia via Skype, sorry, Em”, Robbie explained feeling a little guilty.   
Her only option was Stephen, but it didn’t turn out well.   
“Please, Stephen, just a while”, she begged him, hanging on his arm.   
“I’m tired, Emily...”, he replied shaking his head.   
“Oh, come on, we’re in a different city and we’re not gonna go out?”  
He looked now at her. “Em, you may be 21, but I’m 31, so please... let this old man rest. Tomorrow we’ll party out”, he said and, seeing her questioning look, he added placing his right hand on his heart: “I promise”.   
She sighed with resignation. “Ok, grandpa...”  
Stephen waited until Emily had opened her room and then she waved him goodbye together with a sweet smile, which made him wink. Once Emily was in her room, she took a shower, put on her pyjamas and lay down her bed with her phone on her hands.  
 _What’s up?_ , Colton texted her.  
 _We’re sleeping_  
 _Together??!!_  
She shook her head. _Are u insane?_  
 _Oh, good. Anyway, remember not to do anything stupid, ok?_   
_I’ll try..._

She looked for the picture Stephen had taken on the plane (and sent them) and suddenly she saw all the selfies he had taken while she was asleep. Stephen sticking out his tongue, Stephen pouting, Stephen with a frightening look and Stephen smiling. Just him and his smile. His beautiful smile. She couldn’t help but stare at that last picture longer than what is considered normal and, then, decided to counter-attack: she posted on Twitter the photo of Stephen pouting. Then, she admired his pictures one more time before going to sleep. He was sleeping on the other side of the wall. She wondered if he was thinking of her too... 

*** 

Next day, they were having breakfast together at the hotel. They all had cereals, some toasts, coffee and oranje juice. They needed energy since it was going to be a very long day.   
“How was your skype session, Robbie?”, Felicity asked him. “Stephen, did you regret sharing the room with him after all?”  
They all laughed. “No, they behaved themselves”, Stephen replied.   
“Just because you were there, you know...”, Robbie joked.   
David raised his hand and looked away. “Come on, I’m not interested at all in what you and Italia do on your Skype conversations”.   
They cracked up. “Oh”, Stephen murmured then, checking his phone.   
“What happens?”, Robbie wanted to know.   
“Em, you look gorgeous in that photo you posted last night!”, Stephen bantered, clearly referring to his own photo.   
“Yeah, right? That’s what happens when you steal my phone”, she said sticking out her tongue, and Stephen smiled, letting the light get to his eyes.   
Robbie looked at them a little bit suspicious, but since they were always with their weird jokes and all, he didn’t pay too much attention to it.   
Later, when they were in the building where the Comic Con was, they were in a small room full with food and drinks as a kind of backstage for them to wait until they could go out and talk to the fans. Stephen decided to go to the toilet before coming out and, then, Emily grabbed his phone from his jacket, which was hanging from coat stand, and took a selfie.   
“What are you doing?”, Robbie asked.   
“This is war, so I’m fighting back”, she answered taking a few more selfies and then putting it inside his jacket again. Finally, Robbie went out to talk to the fans of The Tomorrow People and the trio did the same with the Arrow fans. Everyone clapped and screamed when they entered. Curiously enough, Emily sat between David and Stephen, but she appeared to be a bit closer to the last one, who had put his arm behind Emily’s shoulders, resting on the sofa. The first questions were for Stephen and were Arrow/Stunts related. Then, there was a question for Emily:  
“How can you work when Stephen, David and Colton are shirtless?”  
Emily laughed and shrugged. “I don’t really know... but hey, those days are marked red in my calendar”, she said and all the audience, including her mates, laughed. “Really, whenever one of them is shirtless... for me is like ‘yippeee!”  
Then, there was a question for David.   
“Hi, David. I just wanted to know if you ship Olicity as much as Diggle does because, I mean... he DOES”, the fan said and immediately everyone whistled happily. He just frowned. “Well, it’s true Diggle is like the Jimmy Cricket of the team and he knows something is going on between oliver and Felicity... And I like their dynamic, so yeah, I think they should end this sexual tension, don’t you agree?”, to what the audience answered a loud ‘yes’. Stephen and Emily shared a look.   
“We’ll see, we’ll see...”, she admitted.   
Another question. “So... speaking of Olicity, what can we expect in the last episodes?”  
“We don’t know yet!”, Emily hurried to say, which was true.   
Stephen leaned forward, grazing Emily’s neck in the process. “We have just read until episode 20, so...”  
“But I’m pretty sure Olicity will be very present”, Emily encouraged the public with a big smile.   
Another fan stood and asked his question: “Do all of you really get on as well as it seems?”  
David shook his head quickly. “We barely speak on set, it’s all appearance”, he said with a very serious look, but he was obviously kidding.   
“I don’t know...”, Emily mumbled. “Do we get on well?”, she asked looking at them.   
“Actually I hate Emily Bett Rickards”, Stephen started and Emily smiled without looking at him. “She’s so boring and quiet... I can’t stand her”.   
Emily nodded. “Yeah, that’s true... and that Amell? What was his name? Stefan? Steve?”, she pretended not to remember, making him grin. “Whatever, he’s a jerk!”  
Stephen nodded too. “Absolutely...”, he answered and everyone laughed, including them.   
“No, seriouly, we spend a lot of time together every day, so if didn’t get on well, we’d die of boredom”, Emily explained.   
After that, there were a few more questions, though very typical ones, and then somes fans came out to take pictures with them. 

*** 

At night, the four of them went out to have dinner together. Everyone noticed Robbie seemed too serious.   
“Something’s wrong, buddy?”, David asked him.   
“No, I’m fine”, he replied shaking his head and trying to smile.   
“You miss Italia, don’t you?”, Stephen said.   
Emily tilted her head and made a puppy face. “Ouuuhhh, how cute! Don’t worry, Robbie, you’ll see her tomorrow”, she told him, putting her hand over his.   
He smiled gently.   
“Yeah, and I’m sure you’ll make up the time you lost”, David joked.  
“How beautiful”, Emily commented sighing. “I mean... Even though you’ve been together for several years now, you are still so in love...”  
Robbie nodded with a nostalgic look. “That’s what happens when you’re in love, I guess. Everyday is like the first day. You feel butterflies in your stomach everytime you see her. You miss her every damn second you are apart. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you wish she was there with you. It’s like that... right Stephen?”  
And Stephen nodded, but he was so far away... It had been a while since the last time he felt they way his cousing was describing. At least with Cassandra. Was that a problem? Probably yes. And more important: if so, could it be fixed?   
“I’m a little jealous, you know”, Emily started, and that made Stephen come back to Earth. “I’d like to live a real love story like yours”.   
Stephen stared at her, who was right beside him, and felt his stomach hurt.   
“You’re very young, little grasshopper”, David said with a smile.   
“You’ll meet the right person when you least expect it. Or maybe you already know him”, Robbie told her.   
Emily smiled while sneaked a peek at Stephen, who was too quiet. “Sure, who knows...” 

They kept on having dinner, but Stephen was really out. He couldn’t stop thinking about the 15 inches that separated him from Emily and then regretted that thought. He tried to think of Cassandra and his daughter, but Emily’s eyes came back to his mind in a matter of seconds. He was so distracted that when they went out to a disco, he stayed in the counter, having a drink with David. In the meantime, Emily was dancing with Robbie. The song that was playing was ‘we found love’, by Rihanna. They were laughing and moving like crazy. Emily was already quite tipsy: she and Robbie had been taking several shots. Then, they came to the counter.   
“Let’s have another round of shots!”, Emily suggested extremily excited.   
“Hey, hey, calm down, baby!”, Robbie told her raising his hands. “I’m gonna go... I don’t wanna be hangover tomorrow”.   
“Yeah, I’m going with you”, David said.   
“Oh Gosh, you’re such party poopers!”, Emily complained, crossing her arms.   
“Watch her”, Robbie told Stephen in the ear. “She’s way too wasted”.   
Stephen nodded seeing then leaving. Emily had already asked for another shot. He sighed. She drank it to down. “Haven’t you drunk enough?”  
She ignored him. Instead, she clung herself to Stephen’s neck. “Let’s dance!”  
He was struggling with her closeness. “I can’t dance”.   
She tilted her head. “Eveyone can”.   
“No, not me”.   
She rolled her eyes. “You’re so boring sometimes...”, she said, putting her hand on his chest. Then, she broke the embrace and sat on a stool and ordered another shot. Stephen kept his distance, he was still trying to recover himself from the fact that he had had Emily so, so close.   
“Hey, hottie...”, a man said approaching Emily.   
“You wanna dance?”, she asked him innocently.   
“And more if you want to..”  
Stephen came closer and put his hand on Emily’s back. “She’s my girl, dude”.   
That simple sentence together with Stephen’s voice in Arrow mode were enough to scare that guy.   
“You’d dance with me if I were your girl?”, Emily asked him.  
“Nope”, he said shaking his head.   
Emily rested her head on the counter, feeling the tiredness coming for her.   
“I’m sure you’d dance with Cassandra...”, she said yawning.   
“Nope”, he insisted, feeling suddenly a bit lost. Why was Emily talking about Cassandra now?  
“I don’t know what you see in her...”, she started to say with an asleepy voice. “What has she got that I don’t?”  
Stephen was freaking out. “What?”  
It took her some time to answer. She was falling asleep. “Am I not good enough for you?”  
Stephen leaned down to look at her. “Of course you are! Em, you’re perfect”.  
“I wish you weren’t married...”, she mumbled just before falling totally asleep.   
Stephen sighed. He took her out of there. They took a cab to go to the hotel. When they entered the taxi, Emily leaned back, hugging Stephen’s chest. He, although surprised at first, embraced her eventually, caressing her hair.   
“Never let me go, Stephen...”, she murmured.   
He looked at her with an infinite tender. “I won’t. Ever...”  
Once they arrived at the hotel, they took the lift to the fifth floor. He searched for the card of her room inside her bag and opened the door. He placed her in the bed slowly, trying not to wake her up. He took off her shoes and, when he leaned in to tuck her in, she hugged him, bringing him closer to her.   
“Stay with me...”, she muttered.   
He knew he should go. He knew it wasn’t ok to stay with her. But she seemed so sweet and innocent... _Just a while_ , he thought, lying on the bed next to her. She immediately turned to him and placed her arm around him. He was a bit tense at first, but then he relaxed and began to play with her blonde hair, which made him lose sense of time and fall asleep. 

Next morning, Emily winked several times, waking up. The first thing she noticed was the huge headache she had. Then, when she stretched out, she touched someone. And that was the second thing she noticed: there was another person in the bed. Very quickly she looked around and saw it was a man and, more specifically, it was Stephen, which was the third thing she noticed.   
“Ah!”, she screamed, completely freaking out. “Shit...”  
Stephen moved, waking up really slowly.   
“Oh my God, Oh my God...”, she kept on saying, hidding her eyes with her hands.   
Stephen realized she was going crazy, so he grazed her shoulder. “Hey...”  
“Stephen, tell me we didn’t do anything stupid”, she begged him, finding it quite difficult to breathe.   
He raised his right brow. “Stupid like what?”  
“I don’t know, like sleeping together, maybe?”, she said desperately, referring to having sex, obviously, though using an euphemism.   
“Well, we actually slept together”, he answered.   
“WHAT?”, was all she could say. Did they sleep together? And why was he so calm? He was married after all.   
“Yeah, we slept in the same bed, but only that, sleep...”, he continued, enjoying her panic attack like a little child.   
She looked hopefull now. “And nothing more? I mean... no kiss or anything?”  
Stephen stood up sit in a chair to put on his shoes. “No kiss”, he replied tying the cords.   
Suddenly Emily took a deep breath. “Thanks God...”  
He then stood and walked to the door but, just before opening it, he said: “Besides, if we ever kissed, I wouldn’t kiss you when you’re drunk”.   
“Why?”, she asked feeling very nervous.   
“Because I’d want you to remember it”, he replied, winking at her.   
And then, leaving her mouth-opened, he left.   
“Stephen... what the hell...?”, he heard. It was Robbie, who had just seen him getting out of Emily’s room. Robbie turned away and started his way to the elevator, shaking his head, completely mad at him. Stephen followed him.  
“Robbie, this isn’t what it seems”.  
“And what does it seem? That you screwed her? Well, yeah, it seems quite like that...”.  
Robbie entered the lift. Stephen stopped the door from closing.   
“Hey, she was too drunk last night, you saw that yourself!. So I took her to her room and-  
“And you took advantage of the moment... Very smart”, Robbie said visibly angry.   
“NO!”, Stephen shouted, angry too. “She was really wasted, so I stayed with her until she completely fell asleep, but I did too. And I have woken up there this morning. But I swear nothing happened. We just shared the bed and until yesterday it wasn’t a crime, is it?”  
Robbie was confused. “Do you promise?”  
Stephen nodded. “I have a daughter, Robbie”, he replied, realizing all he cared was Mavi, not Cassandra. Why haven’t he mentioned her? However, it worked.   
“Sorry, Stephen...”, Robbie said,patting his cousing on the back.   
“Don’t worry. I admit it seemed weird, so...”  
Robbie inhaled. “breakfast?”  
Stephen nodded. “Breakfast”.   
Stephen knew Robbie was now suspicious despite they appeared to have cleared things up, so he decided he should be more distant with Emily whenever Robbie was present. 

*** 

They were on the plane on their way back home. David was sleeping and Robbie had gone to the toilet. Emily gathered her courage and said: “I hope I didn’t bother you too much last night. I don’t usually drink that much...”  
Stephen looked at her. It was the perfect moment to tease her.   
“Not really. In fact, you were especially sincere and affectionate”.   
“Sincere? Affectionate? What did I do? Or Say?”, she asked at the edge of a heart attack.   
“That you were in love with me”.   
“WHAT?”, she shouted and, causing everyone to look at her, and even David woke up.   
Stephen grinned. “Kidding, kidding”, he answered.   
“You’re an asshole, Stephen”, she said, hitting his arm and taking a deep breath.   
“Why are you so worried?”  
“I’m not”, she lied and, trying to sound casual she said: “I’m just... curious”.   
He nodded with a smile. “Sure...”  
Stephen looked through the window. He knew months ago Emily had had feelings for him, but he thought it was just some kind of attraction. Nevertheless, now, after everything she told him last night and her nerviousness today, he wasn’t so sure. It is generally said that drunk people tell the truth, so was everything Emily said last night truth? 

That night, when Stephen was in bed, still using his phone though, he texted Emily:   
_You’re good enough, Em. You’re way better than that_  
Emily didn’t know what was that about; she didn’t remember anything from last night, but she smiled anyway. It was beautiful and it made her feel special. He made her feel special and she didn’t want to lose that never in her life. 

*** 

Next day, Cassandra went to set to spend more time with Stephen since he had been in Chicago and now he had to shoot, leaving no time for her. Stephen was now in the middle of a scene with Katie Cassidy. Cassandra was keeping his phone in the meantime and she thought she would see the pictures: she was sure they took some photos during their trip. The first one she saw was the selfie of the four of them together on the plane. His lip caught her attention. He was rather funny with that cut.   
“Nice photo, isn’t it?”, David asked her.   
She nods. “Yeah... And the lip... “, she stops, grinning. “He has such a funny face...”  
“Well, then you should thank Emily”.   
Cassandra went still. “Emily?”, she asked, trying to keep it cool.   
“She hit him. Maybe she should have done it sooner, don’t you think so?”, David joked.   
Cassandra tried to smile. “Yeah, she should have...”  
Then, she passed the pictures and saw different selfies of Emily. Just her. Emily. The one that had hurt Stephen’s lip. How? Cassandra did not know. And Emily. The one who appeared repeatedly on her husband’s phone. She saw Stephen go to his trailer, so she followed him.   
“Hey, I didn’t know where you were”, he said when she entered and closed the door behind her.   
“Why didn’t you tell me Emily hurt your lip?”  
Stephen was shocked and confused. “I didn’t think that detail was that important...”  
Cassandra smiled, but it wasn’t a sweet smile: it was an ironic one.   
“Yeah... sure. And what about all the pictures you have of her in your phone? They don’t mean anything either?”, she asked showing him his phone with a photo of Emily.   
Stephen sighed. “I take selfies with her phone and she does the same with mine. It’s just a silly thing, come on...”  
She laughed in a rage. “How cute! Now you even have a private game!”  
Stephen tilted his head. “Cassandra, you’re making a mountain out of a molehill”  
“Stephen, you’re a different person when you’re with her. She does something to you and you seem to like it!”  
Stephen was getting angry. “That’s nonsense”.  
“Yeah... Of course, I’m always wrong”, she replied at the edge of crying. “I just hope you know what you’re doing”.   
And she left. Stephen sighed. He was tired. Tired of quarrelling with Cassandra. Tired of lying to everyone, including himself. Tired of repressing his emotions. Tired of doing the correct thing, even when that didn’t imply his happiness.   
“Hey... you’re ok?”  
He looked at the door, right at the blonde girl who had just come in. And then he understood everything. She was the only one that made him feel butterflies in his stomach. She was the only that he missed the most. She was the only one he would like to share every single moment of his life. She was the only one that made him happy.   
“Stephen?”, she asked, given the fact that he was so silent and looking at her in such a weird way. “I can come by later. It’s just that I saw Cassandra leave so mad and... I thought that you’d like to talk...”  
He was staring at her as if she was the most precious thing in the world. And, to him, she was.   
“So... you wanna talk?”, she asked, starting to feel awkward.   
Stephen took some steps toward her.   
“No”, he replied with a low voice, still looking at her.   
She smiled, uncomfortable. “Ok... so... Do you want me to leave?”  
He took another step and shook his head. “No”.   
She noticed he was now really close. There were a few inches of distance. She rested her body on the door of his trailer, feeling her knees failing. Stephen stared at her lips, then at her eyes one more time. “Then... what do you want?”, she said swallowing with difficulties.   
He came even closer. Now she could feel his breath. She was holding her breath, feeling completely nervous.   
“I wanna kiss you”, he answered. Then looked at her lips and he slowly ended the distance that got them apart. It was a sweet and gentle touch. When they came a little apart, he searched for her look, wanting to know whether he had messed it up or not.   
She smiled briefly and then kissed him back, giving him the enough courage to place his right hand on her cheeck while messing her hair with the other. The kiss was more intense now, both of them completely close, with no space between them. She placed her hand on his neck, deepening the kiss.   
“Stephen!”, someone shouted hitting the door of the trailer.   
They disentangled and separated from the door.   
“Five minutes!”  
They stared at each other, breathless and with a questioning look.   
Emily though of something to say, but there wasn’t really anything in this world that could fit in that situation. So she just smiled and went away.   
Stephen let himself fall into the couch. They have kissed and he regretted nothing. Now he had many questions in his head, but there was something he had very clear: once he had kissed her, there was no turning back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was chapter 13, which is a number I love because it's very controversial. Some people say it brings bad luck, but I tend to like it. So I thought this had to be a crucial chapter. There had to be a turning point in the story. And that's what I did.   
> Also, it took me some more time than usual to write it because it's a bit longer. But I really hope you like it and find the wait worth it :) 
> 
> Thank you so much for your support.
> 
> Xoxo


	14. "Is this so bad?"

“I’m very hungry”, Stephen said waving a little yellow duck, making a funny voice.   
He was bathing Mavi and he always played funny games when doing it. He was holding her back so that she didn’t fall: she was still too young to keep her still and balanced.   
“I’m gonna eat you”, he said, tickling her belly with the plastic duck. She started to laugh and for Stephen that was the most beautiful sound in the whole world.   
Cassandra was standing at the door, watching them in silence and wondering they would be a happy family again, the three of them together. She finally talked:  
“I’m going to my mum’s for lunch”.   
Stephen got startled, he wasn’t expecting her there.   
“You’re taking Mavi?”, he asked with a neutral voice.   
“Yes. You wanna come?”  
Stephen thought about it for just a second, but deep down he had no doubts.   
“I can’t. I’m going to work out with Robbie”.   
Although he was with his back to Cassandra, he knew she was upset.   
“Ok, get her ready”.   
Stephen took her out of the shower and put her on his bed, on a towel.   
“Wow, little monkey, look at you! You look like a snowman”, he said when he put her the talcum powder. “And what is there?”, he asked with a big smile pointing to her belly button. “Waaah”, he exclaimed pretending to eat her belly, at which she laughed again. Her laughter was paradise for him. Mavi was the most important person in the world to him and more often than not, he wished she didn’t have to grow up and she could stay like that.   
Eventually, he dressed her up and Cassandra and she left. Immediately after that, he prepared his bag for the gym. Robbie and Stephen were going to a very specific place where they could do parkour. He was picking up a t-shirt when the door bell rang. He couldn’t be more surprised when he opened the door.   
“Em, what are you doing here?”  
She seemed nervous. They hadn’t talked since yesterday’s kiss and now she was there, standing in front of him.  
“Yesterday you left without the script for 2x21, so Marc asked me as a favour to give it to you, since today we didn’t have to go to set.”, she explained, giving him the documents.   
“Oh, thank you, right, I forgot it.”, he answered and, after some seconds of silence, he added: “Come in, please”.   
She was hesitant. What if Cassandra was inside? That would be very awkward.   
“Nobody’s home, just me”, he remarked, reading Emily’s mind and realizing her dilemma. She smiled and came in.   
“I called you several times to tell you I was passing by, but I got no reply, so…”.  
“Yeah, my phone was in silence mode”.   
“No problem”, she said waving her right hand.   
Stephen closed the door and followed her to the living room.   
“Do you want some coffee or something?”  
She opened her eyes widely. “Yes, please, I need caffeine in my veins”, she joked and Stephen smiled.   
“Ok, have a sit and feel yourself at home”, he told her while going to the kitchen. Once there, he took a glass and turned on the coffee maker. Then, he took his phone and texted Robbie: _I can’t make it, sorry. See you tomorrow_   
“Do you need help with the coffee?”, he heard Emily say.   
“I think I can handle it”, he replied half laughing.   
Emily sat on the sofa and waited. Suddenly, she saw a book on the table and took it.   
“You’re reading “The Da Vinci’s Code?”   
“Yes, I wanted to cultivate myself with Dan Brown’s conspiracies”, he said amused.   
She opened the book to leafed through the pages when she saw it: a dedication from Cassandra. She must have bought it. It said: _Love, like this book, is a mystery. I hope our love never gets to be solved. I love you, Cassandra_. Emily felt a punch in her stomach and so, she grimaced, annoyed.   
“Mysteries and a charismatic professor? Sounds interesting”, she said trying to keep it cool. Then, Stephen entered the room and handed her the cup of coffee. Emily put the book where it was and took the coffee.   
“Two tablespoons of sugar, right? That’s what I put”, he told her as a warning.   
“Yep”, she answered trying to hide a smile. They spent so much time together that they got to know those little details of each other. Emily took a sip and then came the silence. An uncomfortable one.   
“Well... I’m glad you’re here because I think we need to talk.   
Emily swallowed hard. She already knew what they had to talk about, and that was what scared her. “Talk?”  
Stephen coughed, a bit nervous. “Yeah, you know… about what happened yesterday”.   
The fact that Stephen didn’t specify things annoyed her a little. She liked calling a spade a spade. Besides, if they were going to have that conversation, they had to be totally clear and sincere. “You mean the fact that you kissed me?”  
Stephen grinned: that was Emily being direct. Well, or being simply Emily.   
“Together with the fact that you kissed me back, yeah”.   
Emily smiled. “Fair enough”.   
Stephen leaned over. “Actually I wanted to talk to you yesterday, but I couldn’t find you”.   
Emily blushed immediately. “I may have run away a little, I guess…”  
Stephen frowned amused. “You escaped from me?”  
She was red with embarrassment. “Not you… this conversation”, she replied incapable of looking him in the eye. “But we’re having it now, so…”  
“And why? Why didn’t you want to have it?”  
Emily took a deep breath. “Well, because you may use the ‘what the hell are you doing, stupid girl’ argument and I wasn’t ready for rejection yesterday, I guess”.   
Stephen stared at her. “Are you now?”  
She shrugged. “You can’t possibly be ever ready for that”.   
Stephen sighed. “Em, I could say many things, but I would never use that argument. Remember that, as you pointed out, I am the one who kissed you first”.   
She nodded. “True… and why? I mean… why did you kiss me?”  
He tensed his lips. “I... Do you remember that conversation we had some months ago?”  
She rolled her eyes. “How could I forget it…?”  
“Well, I’ve been feeling attracted to you even before that conversation”, he admitted.   
Emily reminded herself of breathing. “In what sense? Physically?”  
He shook his head. “Not only that. It’s mostly… that you make me happy”.   
Emily felt her tears coming, but she didn’t want to be happy about it: he was married and despite anything he may say to her now, he would eventually hurt her, she was sure.   
“Stephen… I don’t know how to say this without sounding too harsh, but… why are you telling me this? You’re married and you have a daughter, so it’s not like you’re gonna leave everything behind and be with me, are you?”  
Stephen noticed the pain in her voice. “It’s complicated, Em. I have to think of Mavi…”  
“I know and I would never ask you to put me before her. But what should I expect from now on? Random kisses in secrecy? Nothing at all?”, she asked a bit flustered.   
Stephen shrugged. “I don’t know, this is new to me too”.   
Emily rolled her eyes. “I love the clarity of terms of this relationship… It’s so crystal clear…”  
There was a silence there, a silence in which each of them was thinking of the best thing to do or to say.   
“I think we could get carried away and see where this goes and what this is exactly”, Stephen suggested finally.   
“I should say no, you know…”  
Stephen smiled, hopeful. “But you will say yes?”  
She sighed. “I know I’ll regret this, but… ok, yes. Let’s find out what this is and where it goes”.   
“Ok, so… that being said, you want me to prepare lunch for you?”, he asked her with a little smile.   
“Stephen, no offense, but I feel very uncomfortable here”.   
Given his poker face, she took the book from the table and showed him Cassandra’s dedication. “She’s everywhere and it makes me feel guilty, which I am, but…”  
Stephen nodded understanding her point. “Ok, then?”  
“I don’t know. You can come to my apartment”.   
He smiled. “Deal”. 

*** 

“Ups”, Stephen heard behind him.   
They were at Emily’s, preparing some home-made pizzas, that is: they were preparing the dough. Stephen was choosing all the ingredients they were going to use (Emily’s fridge was full of food) while Emily knead the dough, but something happened.   
“What’s up?”, he asked her.   
“I don’t know, I was mixing everything but now this feels weird, like hard...”, she explained.   
Stephen came closer and, when he looked at her, he couldn’t help but laugh immediately. Emily was lost. Her eyes widened out of confusion.  
“What’s so funny?”  
Stephen recovered himself from the fit of laughter and then pointed at her.   
“There’s flour all over you face”, he told her with a grin.   
She went to the lobby and looked at the mirror, then she came back.   
“Well, it looks good on me, right?”  
Stephen nodded, amused. “Sure, sure...”, he saidabsent-minded.   
“But, you know? It’s a pity I am the only one with this incredible look...”, she commented and before Stephen could figure out what she was up to, she covered his face with flour too.   
“Hey!”, he exclaimed, grabbing her hand, preventing her from escaping, embracing her from behind.   
“Too slow, Mr Amell”, she said, still struggling to escape from his arms, but he was way too stronger. Then, he turned her so that she could face him. He was keeping her trapped in his arms.   
“Cocky girl...”, he murmured, staring at her lips.   
She didn’t think twice and she kissed him. She pressed both hands on his cheek and came even closer, their bodies totally entangled. Stephen then placed his hands on her waits and deepened the kiss. When they finally had to stop to breathe, he mutered:   
“God... I love making pizza”, which made her laugh.   
Eventually, they finished the pizzas and put them in the oven. In the meantime, they were to the living room and sat on the sofa. Unlike before, when they were at Stephen’s, they were sitting next to each other now, with not even an inch between them. She turned on the tv. It was _America’s Next Top Model_. One of the girls had had her hair cut and was now crying.   
“Come on... this programma couldn’t be any more stupid”, she said.   
Stephen looked down. And that was when she caught on. “Oh, my God, I’m sorry... I forgot this was where Cassandra beacme famous... Sorry”.   
He shook his head. “Don’t worry. I’ve always criticized this show too”.   
Emily frowned, she didn’t make any question.   
“It’s just... I’ve always found this models world very superficial, you know. I would never cry over my hair or my nails or even my clothes. They’re so childish to me...”  
Stephen totally agreed with her. “You’re right”.   
“Am I?”  
“Yes. They’re obsessed with unimportant things.”   
Emily couldn’t help herself. “If you think so, why did you marry Cassandra?”  
“I loved her. She is pretty and charming...”  
Emily made a face. “Hey... let’s watch another thing, ok?”, he said changing the chanel. This time, they watched a scene of Pretty Little Liars. It was old. It was the scene when Aria’s parents find out she is with Ezra and they don’t take it very well.   
“Understandable... My parents would be mad too if they knew I’ve kissed you”, she told him.   
“My parents would be really disappointed too...”, he agreed.   
They remained silent for a moment, lost in their thoughts.   
“Is this so bad, Stephen?”, Emily asked him. “I mean, I know you have a family and we’re cheating everyone, but... we’re happy. How can something that makes you happy be so bad?”  
Stephen looked at her with infinite tenderness. She was so innocent and pure, he couldn’t believe she was even real.   
“I don’t know if this is so bad, but... right now I don’t care. Right now I am here, with you, and I am happy. So we well decide if this is wrong tomorrow.”  
She smiled, not totally convinced, but contented with that for the moment.   
“Come here”, he said raising his arm. She moved in the sofa and then hugged him, resting her head on his chest, being embraced by him.   
They kept on watching tv for a while, Stephen caressing her back and her feeling the luckiest girl in the entire world. Suddenly, Stephen noticed something. He stood up, carefully, forcing her to separate from him.   
“What?”, she asked.   
“Don’t you smell it?”  
She sniffed out. “Yeah, it’s like... something’s burnt...”, she said and immediately looked at him, panicking. “The pizzas!”  
They ran to the kitchen and opened the oven just to see two burnt pizzas.   
Emily started to laugh and, even though at the begining Stephen was a bit annoyed, he ended up doing the same.   
“Well, I guess we’ll have to order them”.   
She nodded still smiling. “It seems so”.   
Suddenly, Stephen’s phone vibrated. It was a text from Cassandra.   
_Italia’s passing by to get her dress back. Expect her in 30 minutes_.   
“Oh, no...”  
Emily frowned. “Something’s wrong?”  
“I’m so sorry, but I gotta go. Cassandra know I was having lunch at home and so she had told Italia to come to get her dress back. So I need to be there”.  
Emily sighed. “Ok, go.”  
“I’m so, so sorry, Em. But we can have lunch another day, right?”, he tried to solve the situation.   
She nodded, but she was visibly pissed. “Right”, she replied.   
Stephen knew she wasn’t happy at all with him leaving, but he couldn’t do otherwise.   
Stephen approached her slowly, staring at her eyes. She was looking down, mad at him. But when he placed his hand on her cheek, she looked at him. She found his sparkling blue eyes and she felt a not on her stomach. He leaned and kissed her forehead fondly, causing her to close her eyes.   
“Talk to you later”, he said before leaving.   
Emily was all alone in the middle of her kitchen with two burtn pizzas and zero expectations to have anyone visiting her. She felt upset and disappointed. So she did what she alaways did when she felt that way.   
“Hi, do you have food for me?”, she said on the phone.   
“Of course, as long as you bring me a pie”, Colton said on the other side of the phone.   
Emily smiled. “Fine, I’ll stop on my way to get you some pie. See you, Haynes”.  
“See you, Em”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there!   
> As you may have seen, this is more like a transition chapter, so get ready for some trouble and a bit of drama.   
> Anyway, I hope you liked the little Stemily moments. And, as always, Colton and Emily's friendship is beyond anything :) 
> 
> Cheers, 
> 
> Xx


	15. "I hate you"

It was Sunday, 11.30 in the morning and Emily was all alone in her house with no plans ahead. She had been shirking for the last hour, so it was about time to get up. She had a home-made orange juice, but she didn’t eat anything; it was too late to have cereals or toasts. She was lying on the sofa, zapping, when she decided to text Stephen.   
_Hey! You wanna do something today?_   
However, she got no answer. She found it normal. Sometimes Stephen forgot he had a phone. So she cleaned her house and just organized everything before sending him another message in the early afternoon:   
_Are you even alive?_   
Seeing he was not replying, she watched a couple of episodes of Revenge, one of her favourite shows at that moment. After that, she checked her phone: nothing. So she just went with the third Harry Potter film, which she loved. She slowly fell asleep on the sofa. She had done nothing actually, but not doing anything is tiring too.   
_ring, ring_ It was her phone. She woke up immediately, a bit confused and scared. She looked at the screen and saw Stephen’s name.   
“Hey...”, she said quite asleep still.   
“Were you sleeping?”, he asked with concern.   
“Yes, I fell asleep watching TV”, she replied turning the tv off.   
“Ups, sorry”.   
She went to the kitchen. “Don’t worry. So tell me, what were you up to? You’ve been MIA all day”, she commented while putting some water in a glass.   
“I know. I had a family day, a barbecue, so you know, I couldn’t check my phone”.   
Emily felt weird every time he mentioned his family life because she was not in it and probably never would be.   
“Oh... great...”, she simply said.   
“Yeah, and Cassandra’s having a shower now, so I decided to call my favourite blondie”, he explained with an amusing voice.   
_How lucky Mavi doesn’t really understand what’s going on..._ , she thought. He had only called her because Cassandra was nowhere to hear them talking. How great, isn’t it?   
“So, how was your day?”, he asked her, sounding casual.   
She considered making something up just not to sound so desperate, but she didn’t. Why did she have to lie?   
“Pretty boring actually. Watching tv all day”, she admitted. “You?”  
She didn’t really want to know how his perfect family day had been, but she felt like she had to.   
“I’ve been teaching Mavi how to swim”.  
Emily widened her eyes. “Stephen, she’s only 6 months old!”  
“I know, but it’s never soon enough. You never know when she going to need it”.   
She smiled. “Yes, shipwrecks are so extremely common that we need to be prepared”, she joked.   
“Remember what happened to Oliver Queen”, he pointed out.   
“True... That could totally happen to Mavi any time soon. I mean, going away with her girlfriend’s sister and ending up on an crappy island and coming back after five years...”, she said, making him laugh.   
!I really wanted to talk to you, you know...”, he suddenly muttered.   
Emily held her breathe. “Did you?”  
“Positive. I’m used to being annoyed by you every single day...”, he said, teasing her.   
“I missed you too. I guess I’m used to bothering you every single day...”, she agreed.   
There was a silence between them. They wanted to say much more, but they didn’t.   
He sighed. “Look, I have to go. See you tomorrow?”, he said.   
“Yes, see you tomorrow”.   
She was just about to hang up when she heard him say something. “I hate you”, he murmured.   
Her heart raced. “I hate you too”.   
And there was no need to say anything else. When love comes, a secret language develops and only the two people involved understand it. 

*** 

“How did you find me?”, Stephen asked as Oliver Queen.   
It was the scene where Diggle and Felicity find Oliver after his mother’s funeral. He was sitting on the floor with his back on a wall.   
“Waller”, David said as Diggle.   
“We were worried about you”, Emily hurried to say as Felicity as both her and David approached Stephen.   
“After you missed your mother’s funeral”, John pointed out.   
Oliver had a lifeless gaze. “I’m sorry I didn’t go. I left to the cemetery, but I ended up here”.   
“And here is...?” she asked with concern for him.   
“here was a secondary facility in case the foundry was compromised, but it became somewhere that I could just go and... be alone”, Oliver explained, still not looking at them. He closed his eyes for a second. “She’s dead because of me”.   
He stood up with difficulties due to his hurt leg. “Five years ago, I could have killed Slade and I would have prevented all of this.”  
Felicity’s eyes were watering. “And now...”, he continued. “All the people left that I care about... they’re all in his crosshairs”. He sighed, now fixing his gaze on Felicity, who was sadly looking at him. “it ends tonight”, he said starting to walk.  
“How?”, she asked following him with her gaze.   
He picked up his coat from the floor. “I turn myself over Slade and I end this vendetta”.   
“Oliver, do you think this ends with you turning yourself over Slade?”, Diggle asked him seriously worried.   
“Yes, I do”, he replied in a really low voice. “After she was gone, he told me that one more person had to die. And then it would end”, he looked down. “This ends for Slade when he kills me.”  
Suddenly, Felicity came closer to him. “I don’t accept that”, she asserted. “You shouldn’t either. You can’t just accept things, Oliver.”   
He stopped to face her. “If I had accepted my life I would be a cocktail waitress in Vegas like my mother and I never would have gone to college and never would have moved a thousand miles away to work at Queen Consolidated and I never would have believed some crazy guy in a hood when he told me that I could be more than just an IT girl”.   
They stared at each other. She was almost crying. “Please, don’t do this...”, she murmured. He, Stephen, was still looking at her. He looked at her lips, so kissable. And her eyes, so beautiful and weepy right then...   
“Felicity...”, he said, but he didn’t know what he had to say. He was just hypnotized by her. “I...”, he tried, but he had no idea what his lines were.   
“I...”  
Then, David started to laugh and so did Emily. “I-I-I, you look like a silly boy!”, she exclaimed.   
“Ok, cut!”, the director shouted. “What’s up, Stephen?”  
He shrugged. “I don’t know, I forgot my lines”.   
“Ok, let’s have a break for lunch”.   
They all went to have lunch, but Stephen didn’t feel like being with everyone else. So on their way to their trailers, Stephen grabbed Emily by her arm.   
“What if we go to McDonald’s? It’s just over there”.   
She smiled. She loved junk food. “I can’t say ‘no’ to a good hamburger”.   
When they were leaving, trying to go unnoticed, Robbie saw them.   
“Hey! Where are you going? Where are the others?”, he asked them.   
Stephen smiled. “We’re having lunch at McDonalds. Do you wanna join us?”, he said. He didn’t want to, but he was forced to ask him.   
“No, I can’t. Italia is waiting for me”.   
“Say ‘hi’ to her”, Emily told him with a big smile.   
“I will, have fun you two”.   
They breathed when they left the building and got to McDonalds.   
“I feel like we’re doing something terrible, don’t you?”, she asked him, feeling guilty.   
“Yeah...”  
He ordered a Big Mac with fries and she ordered two cheeseburgers.   
“So... what happened to you before? It’s not like you to forget your lines”, she commented with intrigue.   
“I don’t know... I was just looking at you and... I forgot everything”.   
She grinned, pleased. “Wow, I didn’t know I had so much power on you”.   
He smiled. She was expecting him to deny it, but instead he just agreed. “Now you know”. And she smiled. And it was a complete sincere smile.   
Their lunch went on normal. They talked about silly things, they laughed and they relaxed. They just had to be careful with showing their close relationship since they were very near the set and anybody could them, but apart from that, they really enjoyed their time there. However, Emily felt powerless. She knew it was great being with him, but she also knew that something bad would happen any moment that would ruin everything. She wished they had met before. She wished circumstances were different. She really wished that. But life’s not always fair. 

***

That afternoon, while Stephen, Emily and David were repeating the previous scene, Colton, Willa and Katie were waiting for their turn. They were watching the scene from the outside.   
“Oh my Gosh, their chemistry is so great...”, Willa pointed out.   
“Yeah...”, Katie replied. Obviously, she was happy for them, but if things were different, she would have been the one having that chemistry with Stephen. But sometimes things do not work out how you expected.   
“By the way...”, Willa started froqning. “Don’t you think it’s weird that Stephen and Emily went out to lunch alone?”  
Colton knew the direction that conversation was taking and he had to avoid it.   
“Nope. I have lunch with her alone almost everyday”, he answered.   
“Yeah, but you tell us to join you or something, and they didn’t say a thing”.   
“You’re right, it was as if they were running away in secrecy”, Katie agreed.   
“You’ve gone mad, definitely”, Colton said, shaking his head.   
Willa approached them and lowered her voice. “And he forgot his lines this morning. When on Earth has that happened to Stephen?”  
“Never”, Katie replied.   
“Exactly, never. He makes mistakes, he invents his lines, but going blank?”, Willa insisted.   
“It’s weird indeed”, the other girl said.   
“I think something’s happening. Maybe Stephen has a problem...”, Willa commented more to herlself.   
Colton was quiet. He didn’t want to go on with that conversation.   
“Katie, it’s your turn”, the director said.   
And, before leaving, she came even closer to Willa and Colton and murmured half laughing: “Maybe they’re dating...”  
Colton got pale. He could feel his heart beating so fast.   
“Wait a minute...”, Willa said, thinking. “You told me she like a man who was in a relationship, that it was complicated...”  
Colton knew was she was implying and shook his head. “NO! Absolutely not”, he answered.  
“But it makes sense!”  
Colton tilted his head. “Willa, don’t go there...”  
She put her hips. “Tell me I’m wrong and I’ll believe you”.   
He looked to the floor and repeated the words. “You’re wrong”.   
Willa sighed. “Ok, but now look me in the eyes.”  
Colton faced her and tried to say it, but he couldn’t lie.   
“You’re... You...”  
She covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh my God...”  
Colton raised his hand, putting his finger on his lips. “Don’t you dare say a thing, ok? It’s a secret”.   
“But they’re dating?”  
“No! Well... I don’t really know...”, he asnwered a little bit confused.   
“I need to talk to him”, Willa asserted.   
“Whatever, but I didn’t tell you anything, ok?”, Colton begged her.   
“Sure, don’t worry”. 

And that conversation between Willa and Stephen didn’t take long to occur. In fact, that night, after filming, Stephen was about to leave when Willa asked him to give her a lift. He had no problems, of course. But if had knew her intentions, he would have behaved differently.   
“My boyfriend was going to take me home, but he got a family issue”, she explained.   
“Well, then I’ll be honoured to do that myself”, he joked while driving.   
She knew there was no way out inside the car and that he’d have to answer whatever she asked him, so she took advantage of the moment.   
“And speaking of boyfriends/girlfriends... what’s going on between you and Emily?”  
Stephen looked at her immediately, totally shocked. Then he focused on the road again, trying to think of something appropriate to say.   
“How do you know?”  
“Colton”, she replied.   
Stephen sighed. Of course it was Colton.   
“And what do you want me to say?”, he asked her, feeling completely lost.   
“Are you two together? What’s going on?”  
Stephen remained silent for a few seconds, choosing what to say.   
“We’re... trying to figure out what’s going on with us.”  
“Have you kissed her?”  
He nodded. “Yes.”  
“Then...?”   
He shrugged. “Then... I... I just... I...”  
She was mouth-opened. “Then you love her...”  
Stephen swallowed hard. “Look, I know I’m married, and that I have a daughter and that I’m older than Emily, but I can’t help it”.   
Willa placed her hand on his shoulder in a friendly way. “Hey, I’m not here to judge you, ok? I just wanted to let you know that you can count on me”.   
He smiled. “Thank you”.   
“And... well... what are you gonna do? Because you should talk to Cassandra”.   
“And say what? I don’t even know what’s going on between Emily and me, Willa. What am I supposed to tell Cassandra? And even if I did, what would happen? Mavi’s in the middle of all of it”, he told her a little bit suffocated.   
“I know it’s a complicated situation, Stephen, but you can’t be like this forever”.   
Stephen stopped the car. They were just in fron of her house.   
He faced her and smiled. “I appreciate what you’re doing, really. And you’re right, I have to do something. But I just feel so lost right now... I don’t know what’s wrong or right anymore...”  
She wanted to say something, but she decided that what he needed was a hug, not some empty words, so she embraced him. “Whatever you do, I’ll always be here for you. Because you’ll always be my lovely brother”, she mumbled, and he kissed her cheek.   
“Thank you”, he answered with a tender smile.   
She winked at him and got off the car. She may be young, but she was absolutely right. He had to do something. 

That night, when he went to bed, Cassandra was reading a book. He covered himself with the blanket and said good night to her. However, she snuggled next to him and kissed his neck.   
“It’s not too late, why don’t we... play a little bit?”, she asked him with a provocative voice.   
She was now on top of him, kissing his chest.   
“I’m tired, Cassandra”, he said.   
She looked at him with cold eyes and came back to her side of the bed.   
“Lately you’re always tired”, she remarked, visibly annoyed.   
“I’m sorry, these last episodes are exhausting”.   
She nodded. “Yeah...”, and she swithched off the lamp and covered herself.   
Stephen sighed. He couldn’t avoid Cassandra forever. He had to make up his mind. He had to know what he wanted to do with his life. And he had to do it soon.   
Before falling asleep, he took his phone and sent Emily a message. It was just two words, but two very significant words. _hate you_ . He smiled when he saw her answer. _hate you more_. And with that little thing, they were happy. Love is made of simple acts. Acts like that one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there!
> 
> Sorry it took me a while to update, but here I am, finally!   
> I hope you can see the difficult position Stephen is in and try to put yourselves on his shoes. It's really complicated. 
> 
> So... as always, let me know what you think and any comments are welcome :) 
> 
> Thank you so much! 
> 
> Xx


	17. Truth or dare?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> Here you have a new chapter. It's a bit longer than usual, but I hope you love it as much as I do :)  
> Also, as I told some of you, I've got something to tell you that may upset you: there are just a few chapters ahead. Nothing lasts forever, I'm afraid. So please, enjoy the last chapters and have fun reading them (like I do when writing them). 
> 
> Thanks again for your support!!
> 
> Love you!
> 
> Xx

Emily opened her eyes slowly, stretching herself. Then, she noticed Stephen was next to her, staring at her with a silly grin on his face. Thus, she smiled and turned to look at him.  
“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty”, he said.  
Last time she woke up with Stephen by her side, she was hangover and she didn’t remember anything. This time she did. This time she remembered every single detail. Maybe that’s why she kissed him. 

**48 hours before…**

It was Thursday and everyone was having a break from shooting. Then, Willa proposed something that all of them found amazing.  
“My grandma’s out this weekend and she has offered me her house, which is quite big. Why don’t we go and enjoy the beach?”, she asked them.  
“How can you even question? Of course I’m in”, Colton answered.  
Emily put her arm around Colton’s neck. “Count me in, too”, she said smiling.  
David sighed. “I can’t. I’m travelling with my family already”, he explained.  
“I’ll go. I wouldn’t miss it”, Katie accepted and Willa gave her a smile.  
“Yeah, I’m in too”, Caity agreed.  
Willa looked at Stephen. “What about you, bro?”  
He shrugged. “I have to talk to Cassandra first”.  
“She can come too, if that’s a problem”, she said, but immediately she murmured to Stephen’s ear: “though maybe that’s a bigger problem, isn’t it?”  
He only smiled. “I’ll let you know”. 

Stephen talked to Cassandra at home. She couldn’t come because she had promised her sister (who was getting married in a couple of months) to help her with the wedding that weekend. However, she told him to go anyway, which he did. Maybe that trip made him make up his mind.  
They were leaving next Friday after filming. They were all really tired: it had been a long day and now they had to drive for an hour and a half. Emily went to the toiled before going out. She was combing her hair a little bit when someone entered. It was Stephen.  
“What are you doing here?”, she asked amused. “Anyone could see us!”  
“There are putting everything in the cars, don’t worry”.  
“Are you sure?”, she insisted while he came closer to her.  
“Yes. And besides… I don’t care if there’s someone here… I wanted to kiss you before leaving. We’re going to be with too many people this weekend that I’m afraid we won’t be alone”, he explained.  
“I’m afraid so…”, she agreed.  
She was resting her back on the sink, looking at Stephen, who placed both his hands at either side of the sink, leaving her no way out. He approached her extremely slowly and then touched her lips briefly. She opened her eyes immediately after he separated.  
“Are you kidding me?”  
Stephen smiled. She grabbed his t-shirt to put him closer and kissed him, entangling her arms around his neck. He embraced her hips and deepened the kiss. They needed to breath, but they didn’t want to (couldn’t) break the kiss. Then, he picked her thighs and raised her, now her being sitting on the sink. He was even closer to her body now, feeling every inch of skin against him. He intermingled his hand in her hair and, out of a sudden, they heard something: “Emily?”. They froze. They opened their eyes, their lips still together, but still and motionless.  
“Em? Are you there?” It was Katie’s voice. Emily got off the sink and pushed Stephen towards one of the toilets, closing the door after him so that nobody could see him.  
“Em!” Finally! We were looking for you”, Katie exclaimed, seeing her washing her hands.  
“Sorry, I’ll be there in a minute”, she answered, trying to sound normal and pretending her heart wasn’t racing.  
“Ok, ok. Do you know where Stephen is, by any chance?”  
She shrugged. “No, no idea”.  
“Ok, thanks”, she replied and she left. Then, Emily heard a laugh coming from inside the toilet. She opened the door and found Stephen laughing nervously. She took a breath and laughed too.  
“Geez… that was so close…!”, she said, putting her right hand on her head.  
“But it was worth it the risk”, he added, approaching her suggestively.  
“Absolutely”, she replied, kissing him briefly. Stephen followed her lips when she got apart, but she placed her hand on his chest, pushing him away.  
“We have to go”, she reminded him.  
“I wouldn’t mind being here all weekend”.  
She tilted her head with a smile. “Neither would I, but we live in the Earth, not in our bubble”.  
He nodded much to his regret. So they finally went to the cars. Stephen and Emily went on Willa’s car and Colton and Caity were on Katie’s car. Stephen was in the front-seat passenger and Emily was right behind him. She knew Willa was aware of their relationship, but they didn’t talk about it. It wasn’t taboo, but they preferred not to deal with that issue. In fact, Emily fell asleep on their way to Willa’s grandmother’s house.  
Once they arrived, it was around 11pm, so they had some sandwiches for dinner and got ready to go to bed.  
“Ok, guys, there are three bedrooms, so 2 people per room”, Willa told them. “How are we gonna do this?  
“I guess the two of you should sleep together, don’t you?”, Katie asked Stephen and Colton.  
Colton looked at his friend and smiled. “Uuh.. Stephen, we’re gonna have fun tonight”.  
Stephen made a face and replied: “Ok, now I’m scared”, and everyone laughed.  
Then, Emily grabbed Willa’s arm. “I wanna sleep with you, love”, to which Willa answered kissing her cheek.  
“Perfect, then Katie and I sleep in the other room”, Caity agreed.  
Thus, Willa showed them their rooms and then she and Emily went to their own one. It was the only room in the house with a full-size bed, in the others there were small individual beds.  
“This is where my grandparents slept”, Willa explained to Emily.  
“Slept?”, she remarked while taking her pyjamas out of her bag.  
“Yeah. My grandpa died some years ago”, Willa replied putting off her shirt.  
“Oh, I’m sorry”.  
“Don’t worry. He was too sick. But he died sleeping, so he didn’t suffer”.  
Emily tried to comfort her friend. “Well, that’s a sweet way of dying, at least”.  
“Yes, it is. In fact, he died here. So he was… at home.”  
Emily looked at her with a weird face. “He died here? Like here **here**? In this bed?”  
“Yes. My grandma usually says that she sees him. Actually, I have even heard her talking to him sometimes”.  
Emily was a little bit scared.  
“Oh, great. Should I say hi to you grandpa’s ghost?”  
Willa faced her with a grin on her face. “Does it frighten you?”  
Emily tried to keep it cool. “Hey, you’re talking to Emily Bett Rickards, I’m a tough girl”.  
Willa smiled. “Good then”.  
They finally put on their pyjamas and went to bed.  
“By the way…”, Willa mumbled. “I don’t blame you for liking Stephen. He’s married, yes, but he’s such a wonderful person that I understand you. And as I told him, I won’t ever judge you”.  
Emily sighed with relief. “Thank you, Willa. You know… I feel so guilty every time we do something… romantic. Because it’s wrong, we’re cheating on Cassandra. I won’t be able to look at her in the eyes ever again. But at the same time I can’t help myself. I just need to be with him like _all_ the time”. Emily explained.  
“You’re in love, babe. And you should never feel bad for being in love”.  
Emily smiled. “Having someone like you supporting me means so much to me, Willa. Really”.  
Willa hugged her friendly. “You can always count on me”.  
And after that little talk, Willa turned the other way and fell asleep. Emily was tired, but for some reason she couldn’t sleep. Suddenly, she started to hear weird noises and the shadow of the trees in the street reflected on the walls didn’t help at all. She whispered Willa’s name, but she was already sleeping. Then she remembered Willa’s grandfather and felt how her heart began to beat faster. At some point during the night, she couldn’t bear it anymore, got up and went to Stephen and Colton’s room. She opened the room very slowly not to make any noise. Then, she illuminated the room with her mobile phone to see in which bed Stephen was and then approached him. She touched his arm softly. “Stephen…”, she said in a whisper. “Stephen…”  
“Hey… What time is it?”, he asked not knowing what was happening.  
“It’s ok, it’s still 1 am. Can I sleep with you?”  
He moved a little bit to make space for her. “Come here”.  
She got inside the bed, but it was so small that they couldn’t lie next to each other, so she was basically on top of him.  
“Gosh… this bed is so small…”, she said adjusting herself around him.  
“I know. My feet don’t even fit here”, he replied.  
She rested her head on his chest. “I wish we could always sleep like this”.  
He sighed. “Me too, Em. Me too”.  
He put his hand under her pyjamas t-shirt and caressed her back, and they both fell asleep this way. 

The next morning, he felt empty when he woke up and didn’t find Emily by his side. Therefore, he got up and went to the kitchen, where he found Willa, Emily and Caity having breakfast. He said hi to them and sat next to Emily.  
“You weren’t there when I woke up”, he told her in the lowest voice possible.  
“Sorry, I was starving and I didn’t wanna wake you up”, she answered with an innocent smile.  
He made a puppy face. “Too bad. Now you owe me a good morning kiss”.  
“I’ll make it up to you”.  
Caity looked at them then. “Hey, what are you murmuring?”  
“I was just telling him I’m dying to go to the beach”, Emily came up with.  
Willa clapped. “Oh, me too! I’m gonna wake everyone up so that we can go there early”, she said, and so she did.  
Thus, they got to the beach at 12 in the morning more or less. At first, they all swam together, but after a while, Stephen and Colton ended up playing with the rackets and Willa was the referee. After that, they all played volleyball and Stephen, Caity and Colton’s team won, and they spent the rest of the day making fun of the losers.  
Later on, they had lunch in a bar near the beach. Then, they spent the rest of the afternoon swimming, sunbathing, making sand castles, etc. At almost eight at night, Willa said that they should be going to have a shower, prepare dinner and so on and so forth. However, Emily was still swimming and she had no intentions of getting out.  
“Don’t worry, go home, I’ll stay here”, Stephen told them.  
“Are you sure?” Katie asked.  
He nodded. “Yes. Someone has to take care of the baby”, he replied with a grin.  
“Ok then. Let’s go, let’s go”, Willa said, aware of the fact that they wanted to be alone.  
They eventually went away and Stephen remained there, lying on the sand, watching Emily goofing around in the water. He checked they were already alone and then went inside, approaching Emily, who waited for him with a big smile. When he finally reached her, she placed her arms around Stephen’s neck and he embraced her.  
“Alone at last”, she said.  
“Yeah. Now you can give me all the kisses you owe me”.  
She frowned. “I though I only owed you one”.  
He made a pout. “Don’t be cruel...”, he begged.  
So she finally kissed him. They had to be careful with the waves, the sea was becoming rough.  
“By the way... why did you come to my room last night?”, he asked her when they got apart.  
“Let’s say Willa’s family is quite peculiar”.  
Stephen made a face. “Ok... I won’t ask any further”.  
“Good...”  
He kissed her cheek and brought her closer to him.  
“Stephen...”, she started. “If you could have a wish right now, what would you wish for?”  
He looked shocked.  
“A wish?”  
She nodded. “Yeah, I don’t know, like world peace and something like that”.  
He considered the question for a minute. “I would wish to have met you ten years ago”.  
She laughed. “But then I would have been a little girl!”  
“I would have waited for you”.  
She stared at him inquisitively. “Well... I guess I came here too late. Blame my parents”.  
He smiled. “It’s never too late”.  
She saw his eyes sparkling. She could die right there, rigth then and she wouldn’t have cared at all. She felt complete with Stephen by her side, feeling him so close to her.  
“Stephen?”  
“Yes?”  
She looked at his lips. “Kiss me”.  
Stephen caressed her cheek and touched her lower lip with his thumb, moving closer to her mouth. Then he stopped some inches away. They felt each other’s breaths, they were so entangled that they could even feel each other’s hearts beating at the speed of light. He was playing too hard to get, still not kissing her and that was killing her. She tried to be the one ending the distance, but he moved aside, provocatively. She smiled and then she grabbed him by his neck and approached him, leaving him no other option that to kiss her.  
“Emily, you’re gonna be the death of me”, he said, making her laugh.  
After a while, they went to Willa’s house. Dinner was already prepared: salad. They had a shower and then they all had dinner. After dinner, Willa took out some bottles of vodka and they had some shots.  
“Let’s play ‘truth or dare’!”, Willa exclaimed very excited.  
“We’re not eighteen years old, Willa”, Katie pointed out.  
Willa tilted her head. “Oh, come on! It’ll be fun!”  
Eventually they all accepted. Usually, it was quite difficult to say ‘no’ to Willa Holland.  
They sat in circle and Willa started.  
“Ok, each of us, in our turn, will ask someone to answer truthfully one question or to do something. If they don’t answer or do what we tell them, they have to take off one piece of clothes. Is it ok?”  
They all nodded.  
“Ok, I start”, Caity said. “Katie, truth or dare?”  
Katie sighed. “Truth”.  
Caity made fun of her. “Uuu, coward”.  
“Ok, so... the question is... have you ever felt attracted to women? And answer honestly!”  
Katie laughed. “Of course not! I mean, I can tell if a woman is pretty, but that’s all”.  
“Come on, Cassidy, we could totally understand you if you had...”, Colton teased her.  
“I haven’t! It’s the truth!”, she insisted.  
Willa laughed. “Ok, ok, we believe you”.  
“I was just teasing you, barbie”, Colton told her, winking at her, and she smiled.  
“I know...”  
Willa touched Stephen’s arm. “Stephen, it’s your turn”.  
He thought very carefully who to choose. “Ok, Willa, I choose you”.  
“Oh, damn it”, she murmured.  
“Truth or dare?”  
They encouraged her to pick ‘dare’, which she finally did and the rest clapped.  
“So... dare... You have to go around the house only in your underwear”, he challenged her.  
They all covered their mouths with their hands.  
“Oh my God, Stephen...”, Katie said.  
However, Willa, who was extremely adventurous and daring, took off her dress and, looking at Stephen said: “You’re gonna regret this, big boy”. Then, she went out and the others followed her to see her go aroung the house. Everyone passing by stared at her, shocked. She was red, but she was having fun at the same time. When she came back, she gave five to Emily.  
“Great, love”, Emily congratulated her.  
“Ok, now it’s my turn”, Willa said, putting on her dress again.  
Stephen covered his face, aware that she was gonna choose him.  
“Stephen, truth or date?”  
“Uh... this is vendetta”, Colton commented.  
“Dare”, Stephen replied with a grin on his face.  
Willa smiled. “Good boy”, she said. “Dare to kiss the most beautiful person in this room”.  
“But he’s married!”, Katie exclaimed.  
“This is just a game”, Willa reminded her.  
Stephen considered kissing Emily, who was quite nervous at that moment. Nevertheless, kissing her would be very, very suspicious, so he picked up the funny option. He stood up and went to Colton’s side and, just before giving him time to realize what was about to happen, he kissed him, causing everyone to shout and scream.  
“Man, that was the most romantic thing I’ve ever seen!”, Colton said when they separated.  
“Have you proposed to him yet?”, Caity asked Stephen.  
“Well, Cassandra’s not very happy about it, but I can’t hide my love for Colton anymore”, he replied, and they all laughed.  
They kept playing a bit more and then Emily said she was going to bed since she was tired. Stephen took advantage of the moment to say he was going to bed too, but actually, he followed Emily to her room.  
“What are you doing here?”, she asked him amused.  
“Truth or dare?”, he asked her, placing his arms around her waist.  
She was surprised. “Truth”.  
He kissed her nose. “Do you want me to stay here tonight?”  
He kissed her right cheek. Then her left cheek. After that, he kissed her forehead. Then, her neck, making her tremble. Finally, he kissed the corner of her mouth.  
“Do you?”, he repeated, to which she simply said: “Yes”.  
They kissed passionately and he took her to bed, letting themselves fall there. He focused on her neck, leaving soft kisses here and there. In the meantime, she managed to take his shirt off, leaving his chest uncovered. She was always amazed at his incredible physic, so she touched his muscles fondly. He looked her in the eyes for a moment and then he lifted her t-shirt to kiss her abdomen. She shivered. He knew she liked that, so he continued, but suddenlt, she said: “Stephen... stop it”.  
He immediately stopped. “Is something wrong?” he felt bad: had he done anything to upset her?  
She took a breathe and opened her eyes. “We can’t do this here”.  
“Why? You don’t wanna do it or...?”  
She shook her head. “I do, but this is Willa’s grandma’s bed. I think this is disrespectful, you know... and kind of creepy”, she explained to him, keeping to herself the ‘ghost argument’.  
He let himself fall over the bed, next to her and stared at the ceiling.  
She rested her head on the hand, looking at him. “Are you mad?”  
He smiled. “Of course not. It’s just... you’re totally right. This is not the appropriate place. But you drive me crazy, I lose control when I’m with you...”, he said, thinking out loud.  
“Stephen?”  
“Uhm?”  
She kissed him on the cheek and said: “I love you”.  
He faced her and his look couldn’t be more full of love. He placed both his hands on her cheeks and really sweetly replied “I love you”. 

*** 

Next morning, Emily opened her eyes slowly, stretching herself. Then, she noticed Stephen was next to her, staring at her with a silly grin on his face. Thus, she smiled and turned to look at him.  
“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty”, he said.  
Last time she woke up with Stephen by her side, she was hangover and she didn’t remember anything. This time she did. This time she remembered every single detail. Maybe that’s why she kissed him.  
“Where’s Willa?”, she asked then, realizing nobody had bothered them.  
“She’s a smart girl, I guess”, Stephen answered.  
Suddenly, someone knocked at the door. It was Willa and Colton.  
“Tell me you didn’t do anything on my grandma’s bed”, Willa begged them laughing.  
“Don’t worry, Willa, we didn’t”, Emily said. “By the way, why didn’t you come here last night?”  
Colton coughed. “Stephen wasn’t in our room, so it wasn’t very difficult to guess what he was doing”.  
“yeah, and given I’m not really into threesomes, I decided to sleep with Colton”, Willa told them.  
“Thanks”, Stephen muttered.  
“Well, we’d better have breakfast and go home”.  
“Yes, let’s go back to reality”, Emily murmured, which made Stephen look sad.  
They packed their things and, after having breakfast, they got on the car and came back to the city centre. Willa took Emily to her house first. She just said goodbye to both of them, though she gave him a very special look before getting off the car. After that, Willa took Stephen home. When he arrived Cassandra was out with Mavi. Then, his phone vibrated. It was a text from Robbie. 

_We need to talk. It’s important._  
 _What is it about? Meet me at home, I’m back_ , Stephen replied.  
 _you and Cassandra. See you in an hour_. 

And now what? What could he expect? However, whatever it was, he was about to find out.


	18. "Why is falling in love a mistake?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello people! 
> 
> As always, thank you so much for your support :)  
> I wanted to tell you how difficult was for me to write that conversation between the Amell cousins. It's so heartbreaking... :( 
> 
> A new reminder that there are just a couple of chapters left (Yeah, I'm sorry too...). 
> 
> So... that's all for now! have fun and please, let me know what you think via comments. I really appreciate them ^^
> 
> Xx

Robbie sat on the sofa and crossed his arms over his chest. Stephen sat on a chair in front of him. They both looked serious. After that conversation nothing would ever be the same, and they knew it.  
“Cassandra was at my place last night. She was crying”, Robbie started.  
He studied Stephen’s face and then spat out: “What the hell is going on with you?”  
Stephen clenched his jaw. “I’m just trying to figure out some things in life”.  
“Do you still love her?”, Robbie asked with a defiant look.  
Stephen took his time to answer. “Yes, I still love her”.  
His cousin shook his head totally lost. “Then what’s the problem?  
Stephen, who was looking down, looked him now on the eyes.  
“I love her, but I am in love with another person”.  
Robbie was freaking out. “Are you cheating on Cassandra?”  
Stephen got nervous. “I... just... I...”, he babbled. Then he took a deep breath and nodded. “It’s been just a few kisses, but I guess I am, yes”.  
“Oh, man...”, Robbie said, looking into space. He leaned forward, resting his albows on his knees and his head on his hands. He remained silent for a while, trying to make any sense of it. Stephen, on the other hand, was preparing himself for the worst.  
“You know... you’re my cousin and I’ll always love you”, Robbie began to say. “But I’ll always tell you when you make mistakes too. And this time you’re making one”.  
Stephen frowned, a bit angry. “Why is falling in love a mistake?”  
“Not falling in love, Stephen. You’re mistake is being a jerk cheating on Cassandra”. Robbie was getting angrier and angrier with each passing moment. “If you don’t love her anymore, have the balls to tell her the truth. Because right now you seem like a stupid 15-year-old teen who doesn’t know what to do in life”.  
There was silence then. Robbie was right, Stephen was pretty aware of it, but being sincere was not always easy.  
“You’re not gonna ask who’s she?”, Stephen asked him with intrigue.  
Robbie shook his head. “I don’t have to”. He had a disappointed look. “And you made another mistake: lying to me. If you hand’t told me I would be fine. I mean... each one decides who to tell their secrets. But I caught you at the Comic Con and you lied to me. You said there was nothing. That you were just taking care of her. And I can’t stand lies. You could have told me the truth. I would have listened to you. I don’t know if I would have understood you, but at least I would have tried to”.  
Stephen could feel the disappoiment in his cousin’s voice.  
“I’m sorry, Robbie”.  
“I know, but that doesn’t change that you’re being an utter asshole”.  
Stephen felt powerless. “What would you do if you were me?”  
“No idea, Stephen. And just so you know, there are no magic solutions here. So don’t expect me to tell you what to do. This time you’ll have to sort this out on your own”.  
Stephen clenched his jaw, mad. “I’m pretty aware there are no magic solutions, I was just asking for your opinion”.  
Robbie laughed bitterly. “You don’t wanna know my opinion, trust me”.  
He stood up and took his jacket, going to the door. Suddenly, when he was about to open it, he added looking at Stephen over his shoulder: “I’ll tell you one more thing: you should talk to her”.  
Stephen stood and took a couple of steps towards him. “To Cassandra?”  
“To Emily”, Robbie clarified. “She’s a smart girl, I’m sure she knows how this is gonna end, but still you should be honest with her”.  
Stephen looked down. “I didn’t plan on falling in love with her”.  
Robbie shook his head really slowly. “If you truly loved her you wouldn’t hurt her like you’re about to”.  
“Why do you assume I’m gonna break her heart? I don’t know what to do yet!”, Stephen growled. He was getting mad.  
“Because I know you, Stephen, and you know that’s what will happen, too. You just don’t want to admit it yet”.  
And just like that, he went away, leaving Stephen there, all by himself, lost in his thoughts. He was mad at Robbie, but more important: he was mad at himself. Why was life so difficult sometimes? 

*** 

“You have to upload that picture on Twitter, girl!”, Colton told Emily laughing. They were at Starbucks, waiting for their turn.  
“I know, later”, she answered. They were talkin gabout a photo they have taken of themselves and they looked very bad, but it was funny.  
“Hello”, Emily said to the server.  
“Hi, what would you like to drink?”, he replied.  
“I’d take a cappuccino, please”, she said and then she turned to Colton. “And you?”  
“Caramel Macchiato”.  
“Perfect”, the boy said, noting everything. However, instead of preparing the coffees, he stared at her. “Excuse me... you’re the girl...-  
“From arrow, yes”, she said, cutting him, knowing what was gonna happen.  
But the boy looked confused. “Well... I was gonna say the girl whose dog ate that woman’s cookie”.  
Then Emily felt horribly embarrassed. It was so common to hear ‘you’re the girl from arrow’, that she was already used to it. But this was new.  
“Oh, Gosh... sorry. Yeah, I’m that girl too”, she answered, remembering that moment. She was sat in the terrace, having a coffee, and her dog was sitting on the floor right beside her. However, she was using her phone, so she didn’t see her dog standing and going to the table next to her and ate a woman’s cookie. That was a complete situation!  
“It was awesome, I became a huge fan of your dog”, the boy kept on talking.  
She smiled. “Really?”  
“Yes, absolutely. So... you’re on Arrow?”  
She nodded. “Yes, I play Felicity Smoak. Have you watched the show?”  
“No, sorry”.  
She waved her hand. “It doesn’t matter. I just won’t talk to you until you watch it, but apart from that...”, she joked and they both laughed.  
Colton look at them with surprise. Were they flirting?  
“Well, in that case I’d better watch your show”, the boy sentenced.  
He started to prepare the coffees. “What are your names?”, he asked them. He needed their names to write them on the coffees.  
“Emily and Colton”, Colton said.  
He turned around to keep doing the caffees.  
“He’s flirting with you”, Colton murmured.  
Emily’s eyes widened. “No, he is not”.  
“Here you have”, the boy said, offering them the coffees.  
“Thank you”, she said.  
They were leaving the place when she saw something written on her coffee which wasn’t her name: ‘Collin 405 942 1940’.  
She turned around to look at him, at Colling, and saw him smiling at her with an amusing look. She smiled back and then uttered: “Ok, maybe he was flirting”.  
They went to Emily’s flat, which was two streets away and laid on her bed while drinking their coffees and listening to music.  
“So... how are things between you and Stephen?”  
She sighed. “Great, simply great”.  
Colton didn’t want to bring up that topic, but it was necessary.  
“And what is he going to do?”  
Emily frowned. “About what?”  
“About you. I mean, this thing of having a girl at home and another one at work must finish some day, right?”, he said.  
Colton was always so direct that sometimes his words hurt people.  
“Yes, he’ll have to make a decision”, she agreed.  
“Any guesses?”, he insisted.  
“I prefer not to think about it”.  
Colton crossed his arms. “That’s not very realistic”.  
“I know, but you know what?”, she said. Then, she drank all the coffee left and added: “I don’t give a shit right now”.  
Colton laughed. “Wow, ok, tough girl”.  
She stood up really fast. “Hey, you know what I want?”  
He shook his head. “Surprise me”.  
She smiled like a little kid. “Harry Potter marathon”.  
“Deal”.  
Emily took both coffees and threw them to the bin and, in the meantime, Colton pucked up the films and put them on the DVD recorder. She took some chips and they enjoyed the afternoon like that. For her, that was heaven, especially knowing that a huge decision was about to be made and she might not like it. However, she was hopeful. She had told Colton she didn’t care in that moment, but it was a lie. She thought about it every single minute. But she couldn’t allow herself to feel sad, nervous or afraid. She had to make the most of every moment. After all, she didn’t know if there would be more. 

*** 

“Ok, now I’m freaking out!”, Colton said.  
They were all reading the script for 2x23 together with some of the producers. They had just finished and they were assimilating everything.  
“Hey there, Olicity!”, Willa exclaimed, making everyone laugh.  
“Speaking of Olicity”, Marc started, “those two scenes (the one at the mansion and the one on the beach) have to be the best thing you’ve ever done”.  
Stephen and Emily nodded. “We’ll kill it”, she promised.  
“And by the way, the first scene you’ll shoot is the beach one, ok? We’ll do it tomorrow”, Marc added, talking specifically to Emily and Stephen.  
“Great, a day on the lake. I’ll probably bring Mavi, is it ok with you?”, Stephen asked him.  
“Yeah, sure”.  
“Ouuh, you’re bringing Mavi tomorrow?”, Emily asked really excited. “It’s been a century since the last time I saw her!”  
“Me too, she must be enormous”, Willa commented.  
“She is, indeed. Give her a year and she’ll be like me”, Stephen joked.  
“You mean... stubborn, ironic and cocky?”, Emily asked him, kidding.  
He smiled. “Exactly”, he replied, winking at her.  
***  
Stephen arrived home early that day. The house was completely silent and that surprised him. He left the keys on the entrance and went in just to find Cassandra sat on the floor, with her back over the sofa, grabbing a picture in her hands.  
“Hi...”, he said approaching her slowly.  
She didn’t say anything.  
“What’s that?”, he asked pointing out to the picture. She showed it to him: it was from their wedding.  
“We had fun that day, right?”, Cassandra said, still looking down.  
He nodded. He could still remember it. “Yes, we did. I hit you with that door..., remember?”, he said half laughing at the memory of that. They went to the hotel after the wedding and he picked her up in his arms, like a child, but when they were entering the room, he hit her with the door unintentionally.  
Cassandra smiled. “Yes... we made quite an entrance”, she answered and they both laughed, which made her look him in the eyes.  
“Mavi’s sleeping?”, he asked, aware of the uncomfort that had emerged.  
“Yes”.  
“I wanna bring her to set tomorrow, do you mind?”  
She shook her head. “No, go ahead”.  
Stephen sat next to her, on the floor too. “I couldn’t ask you before, but how is your sister’s wedding going? Did you do many things this weekend?”  
“Organizing the tables is the most difficult thing ever. I didn’t remember it that hard, actually”.  
Stephen smiled. “That’s because we only invited 20 people”.  
She lay on his chest, resting her head on his shoulder.  
“True”.  
“Is she excited? You were terrible a month before the wedding”.  
She looked at him indignant. “Of course, because I did it all myself, you didn’t do anything!”  
“Because I didn’t care about the ceremony itself”.  
She sighed. “Yeah, you tell me...”.  
“I just wanted to marry you and I would have done it without anyone there and without all that paraphernalia, that’s all”.  
“Of course, but that wouldn’t have been a wedding, Stephen. It had to be perfect, that’s why I stressed out”.  
He nodded. “I Know...”  
They remained silent a while. “By the way... how was _your_ weekend with the guys?”, she asked him.  
He hesitated. “Oh, you know... cool. We went to the beach, we drank, we goofed aroung... just the usual”.  
“I’m glad you had fun”.  
He kissed her hair. “Why don’t we go to sleep?”  
She agreed. “Go first. I’ll go in a minute”.  
“Ok...”, he replied standing up.  
She waited until Stephen was gone to have a last look at the picture. One tear fell down through her cheek. She stood up and, before putting the picture on the shelf, she sighed and kissed it.


	19. Another time, another place

"Wow, what's that? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Mavi!", Emily kind of sang moving Mavi in the air, making her laugh. "God, she's way heavier than before. What does she even eat?"  
"Lots of milk and baby food", Stephen replied.  
They were on the lake, after filming the beach scene for 2x23. There was a cold breeze that made Mavi shiver. Emily, noticing that, hugged her fondly.  
"Oh, my little princess is cold?"  
Stephen stared at them. They looked so good together. Emily was enchanted with Mavi and vice versa. They even looked mother and daughter.  
"Are you nervous?", Emily asked him suddenly. He had no idea what she was talking about and, given her poker face, she added: "Tomorrow is the day when Oliver Queen tells Felicity he loves her. And just so you know, he's not lying, everyone knows he loves her. And I don't blame him. I mean, who wouldn't love her?"  
Stephen cracked a smile. "Ouh, yes. The whole world will change after that moment", he joked.  
"It will", she said nodding firmly, caressing Mavi's legs and arms to keep her warm.  
"Fans will freak out", he asserted with a grin.  
"Totally. And then there's the hiatus, that's not fair. How can we expect anybody to wait for so long after Oliver Queen has told Felicity he loves her?"  
Stephen tilted his head and smiled again. "I think you could be the president of the Olicity fandom".  
She rolled her eyes. "I watch shows too and I just know how it feels. So I feel bad for them. I mean... I would literally die if I were them".  
"And speaking of... you still have to watch parenthood".  
Emily bit her lip innocently. "Oh, it's true. Well, that could be your birthday present".  
Stephen frowned. "My birthday present? What day is today?"  
Emily puffed. "Today is April 25th and your birthday is the 8th".  
"Wow, I didn't know... Anyway, what kind of present that would be? You don't give me anything at all".  
Emily was playing with Mavi's hands, as if she was dancing. "Of course I do. I would give you the possibility to talk to me about the show and that's very important when you're so obsessed with a show, trust me", she replied, making him laugh.  
"If you say so..."  
They remained silent and he noticed she was about to say something. However, it seemed difficult for her to say it out loud, so he helped her.  
"Are you ok, Em?"  
She looked at him, worried. "I was just wondering... what are we going to do during the hiatus? Because I mean... now we're working and we have an excuse to see us, but tomorrow is likely to be the last day of filming and after that... what? You'll be away with your family and I'll leave too, so... what can we expect?"  
She looked like a little girl in that moment. Stephen smiled sweetly whileplacing his right hand on her cheek, raising her head to make her look at him.  
"This might sound a little creppy, but... you're not gonna lose me", he said, echoing Oliver's words, which caused her to smile.  
She nodded and then pushed out his hand. "Mavi's here, we shouldn't... do this", she told him in a low voice.  
"Em, we're not doing anything weird. And besides, she's too young, she doesn't know what's going on".  
"Right..."  
She tried to relax and get the thought of them getting apart out of her head. Instead, she came up with something some exciting.  
"Hey, you know what we have to do?", she started, and since he shook his head, she added: "There's this new film that-  
"Another film?", Stephen asked her with a grin on his face.  
She managed not to laugh. "But it will be a masterpiece, I know".  
"What's the title?"  
She hesitated. "Lucy, the kitty that couldn't sing".  
Stephen cracked up immediately. "You're kidding?"  
She shook her head. "The title might be a little silly, but Gosh, it seems like it will be great. We have to go, please...", she begged him, wondering if she should have made up another title.  
He sighed. "Ok, we'll go".  
Emily used Mavi's hands to clap, totally happy. "Yipee!"  
Then, Mavi made a weird noise and started to play with Emily's nose. Stephen smiled tendenrly.  
"She likes you", he pointed out.  
Emily looked down at her and kissed Mavi's nose. "The feeling is mutual".  
And then, a thought came to Stephen's mind: maybe Mavi having 'two families' was not that absurd. Maybe that was possible. 

*** 

Later that day, Stephen came home with Mavi. Cassandra, who was making dinner, went to the entrance to greet them.  
"Hey, look who's here!", she said approaching them and kissing Mavi's forehead.  
"Look, Mavi. It's mommy, did you miss her?", he asked pointing at Cassandra.  
Mavi laughed. "Yes, it's Mommy", Cassandra said with that strange voice adults make when talking to little children.  
"Mmmom...", Mavi murmured.  
Cassandra's eyes widened. "OMG, she said mom!!!"  
Stephen cracked up. "No, she didn't!", he answered.  
Cassandra took Mavi in her arms immediately. "Of course she did! Didn't you hear her?"  
Stephen tilted his head. "She's only six months old, she cannot talk".  
Cassandra shrugged. "I don't care what doctors may say, she just said 'mom'!".  
Stephen smiled and shook his head. "You're impossible".  
She then looked at him, amused. "You're just jealous she said 'mom' before 'dad'. Admit it, there's no point in denying it", she said.  
Stephen laughed. "That's not true, how dare you!".  
Cassandra looked at Mavi and said with a funny voice: "Your dad is in denial".  
"I'm not in denial", he said back, half amused, half annoyed.  
Cassandra glanced at him and smiled. "You're so cute when you're jealous", she said, caressing his cheek. Then she put Mavi in Stephen's arms again and called her mother and, well, her entire family, to tell them what had just happened.  
Stephen sighed and looked down. He had made up his mind. Now he knew what he had to do. 

*** 

_Ding dong_  
Emily was reading 'Wuthering Heights' when she heard a knock on the door. She check her watch: it was midnight. She went to the door and looked through the peephole.  
"Stephen?", she asked once she opened the door.  
He smiled. He had a bouquet of roses.  
"A rose for a rose", he said offering her the flowers.  
She laughed, genuily surprised. "What are you doing here? Do you know what time it is?", she told him, accepting the bouquet.  
"Yes. It's Emily o'clock", he replied.  
She grinned, shaking her head. Then she furrowed her brow. "Are you even real?"  
He smiled. "You can always check it", he mumbled.  
She pulled him inside and closed the door behind her.  
She filled a big glass with water and put the flowers inside.  
"Where did you buy them? It's too late, everything must be closed", she noticed.  
"If I told you I'd have to kill you", he replied.  
She raised a brow, doubtful. "Ok, now seriously: why are you here?"  
They were standing next to a big wooden table where Emily had placed the flowers.  
"I wanted to see you", he answered staring at her as if she was the only star in the sky. She blushed. "So, seeing me all day at set is not enough?", she asked, teasing him.  
"Not anymore".  
"And what about Cassandra? It's midnight, she must-  
"Don't worry about that", he cut her off.  
She swallowed hard. "So... what do you want to do?"  
He came closer and placed his hand on her waist. Then, he tilted his head.  
"You're so beautiful...", he whispered.  
Emily's heart was already jumping in and out. "That's not an answer", she managed to say.  
Stephen looked at her lips longer than she could handle and then he kissed her. "Does this count as an answer for you?"  
She nodded and kissed him back. It wasn't a passionate kiss, it was more a kiss full of desperation and necessity. They needed each other. They wanted each other. Stephen entangled his hand in her hair and she wrapped hers around his neck. Emily took his jacket off and it fell to the ground. Without stopping kissing him, she started to unbutton her shirt, but Stephen, who was aware of that, stpped her, putting a hand over hers. She looked at him in shock.  
"What?", she asked, frowning.  
"I don't wanna do this right now".  
Emily looked around and smiled. "There are no creepy grandmothers's beds here, Stephen", she joked, but Stephen was still serious.  
He put his hand on her shoulder and murmured: "I just want to watch you sleep tonight".  
She looked down, resigned, and buttoned her shirt again. "Next time, then?"  
He smiled and nodded. "Next time, then".  
They went to her room, holding hands, and just when they entered, she said: "I promise you won't escape from me next time, kid".  
She went to the bathroom to put on her pyjamas and Stephen laughed inwardly. They had been about to have sex two or three times now and still she didn’t want him to see her change her clothes. So typical of Emily.  
When she got out of the bathroom, she saw him lying on the bed, so she did the same and rested her head on his chest.  
“What’s stopping you from sleeping with me, Stephen? Because this thing of watching me sleep is very romantic and all, but... you know, there are other things to do which are rather... interesting too”, she said.  
He put his hand on her waist and stared at her. “I know, but I’m feeling kind of nostalgic today, so I just wanted to be with you tonight and... watch you sleep”.  
She smiled. “Ok, I can do that”.  
They were silent for a while. She just closed her eyes and tried to chill out, while he looked at her. Then, he broke the silence.  
“Em?”  
“Uhm?”  
“You’re the best person I’ve ever known”, he said. “You’re amazing, and do not ever let anyone tell you otherwise, not even me”.  
She grinned. “Wow, now you sound like my father”, she joked, but soon she realized he was not kidding.  
“I’m serious, Em. You’re really worth it. You’re priceless. Do not ever lose faith in you, cause you... you... You deserve the best in the world”.  
She was now incredibl touched by Stephen's speech.  
"Stephen...", she murmured, tears running down her face.  
He kissed her tears, then her lips. "I love you, Emily. I love you".  
She sighed. "I love you too, Stephen, and I always will".  
And just like that, she felt she was the luckiest girl in the whole planet. She felt as if she had just found a four-leaf clover. As if all the magic in the world was there, in her room, right beside her. She felt overwhelmed, because she had never loved like that, and it is always a bit scary. But, as much frightened as she was, she was happy. Extremely and completely happy. And she would have given anything for that moment to last forever. 

Next morning, when her alarm o'clock went on, she got disappointed when she found out Stephen wasn't there. Of course, he must have left to change and all, she thought. However, she felt her knees fail when she saw an envelope with only one word written: Emily. It was on the bed, just when Stephen had been a few hours ago. She had no idea what was about, but she thought it would be something romantic, after last night. Nevertheless, it was anything but romantic. It was heartbreaking. It was a letter. 

_Hello smurf,_

_I once read that love is about sacrifices. I didn't believe that guy then, but I do now. I used to think love was simple and if you loved someone, you just had to be with that person. Now I know I was wrong. Love is really complex to find and, sometimes, you find it in the wrong timing. Like me. And then you're screwed-up. I want you to know that I'm not choosing Cassandra over you in the same way I'm not choosing you over her. I'm choosing Mavi and what's best for her. And even though a part of me believed she could be very happy if I was with you, deep down I know that right now, what she needs is both of her parents together. I'm really, really sorry. I never meant to hurt you, I promise. I truly love you. I am so proud to say that I am in love with you, Emily Bett Rickards. But I can't be with you. I wish we had another time. And I really wished we had another place. But life sucks sometimes. And, as I told you last night, you deserve the best in this world, which is not me right now. I'm sure you'll find a man who can give you what you deserve and not some random kisses in secrecy. I'm sure your heart will race again with just a single touch. I'm sure you'll find the guy who'll make you the happiest person in the planet Earth. I know it. So the only thing left for me now is to hope you can forgive me some day. And please, never forget this: you will always be my one in a million._

_Love you,_

_Stephen_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I really hope you didn't die with the chapter!  
> It's soooo, soooo sad, I know. But hey, there's still one chapter left. So let's be positive :) 
> 
> Thank you and, please, let me know what you think. 
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Xx


	20. Psychos, trailer conversations and trash treasures

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I really recommend you read chapters 18&19 again ;);)

_Hello smurf,_

_I once read that love is about sacrifices. I didn't believe that guy then, but I do now. I used to think love was simple and if you loved someone, you just had to be with that person. Now I know I was wrong. Love is really complex to find and, sometimes, you find it in the wrong timing. Like me. And then you're screwed-up. I want you to know that I'm not choosing Cassandra over you in the same way I'm not choosing you over her. I'm choosing Mavi and what's best for her. And even though a part of me believed she could be very happy if I was with you, deep down I know that right now, what she needs is both of her parents together. I'm really, really sorry. I never meant to hurt you, I promise. I truly love you. I am so proud to say that I am in love with you, Emily Bett Rickards. But I can't be with you. I wish we had another time. And I really wished we had another place. But life sucks sometimes. And, as I told you last night, you deserve the best in this world, which is not me right now. I'm sure you'll find a man who can give you what you deserve and not some random kisses in secrecy. I'm sure your heart will race again with just a single touch. I'm sure you'll find the guy who'll make you the happiest person in the planet Earth. I know it. So the only thing left for me now is to hope you can forgive me some day. And please, never forget this: you will always be my one in a million._

_Love you,_

_Stephen_

 

Emily read the letter again and again until she learnt every single word by heart. Was that a dream? It had to, because last time she was awake she was embracing Stephen and now he had dumped her (though she doubted that was the correct word since they were never together). When she finally realized what that letter meant, she picked her bag and ran to set, specifically to Stephen’s trailer. She didn’t even stop to say hi to anyone. Instead, she went straight to where she knew she would find him at that time. She opened the door without knocking, making Stephen, who was talking on the phone, look around a bit shocked. She closed the door and waited for him to end that call.  
“Hey... call you later, ok? I’ve got to do something now”, he said keeping eye contact with Emily, who seemed furious. “Yeah, me too”, he added and ended the call.  
He was going to say something, but Emily got first.  
“You’re a coward!”, she shouted, creasing the letter, which was still on her hands.  
“Emily, I-“, he tried to say, but she cut him off.  
“No, I had to read your stupid letter so now _you_ listen to me”, she sentenced. “You’re a coward! You didn’t have the balls to tell me this face-to-face... and I didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye!”, she screamed, holding her gaze.  
“You’ve always said I’m too mature for my age, but at the end of the day you’ve treated me like a child. You could have told me what you were gonna do. That way I wouldn’t have talked to you about a film we would never see together or about a hiatus that would never matter to us”, she told him, feeling tears in her eyes.  
He took advantage of her temporary silence to defend himself. “I wrote you a letter because I couldn’t say this and look to you in the eyes”, he admitted in a really low voice.  
She stared at him, her heart racing. She wanted to feel bad for him, she wanted to understand him, but she couldn’t.  
“Well, welcome to the adult world, Stephen. Here we have to deal with difficult stuff sometimes, and we do them, no matter how hard they are”, she told him, completely mad.  
“Em...-  
“I don’t diserve this”, she added, now looking down. “God, I don’t deserve this!”.  
She took a deep breath. “You say in your letter that love is complex”, she suddenly said, looking directly at him again. “I disagree. Love is very simple. Love is simple and it is people like you that make it look hard”.  
“Emily, I’m sorry... But Mavi-  
She moved her head to one side violently. “Jesus, stop it, Stephen! Ok, I get it, you have a daughter and she is the most important person in the world for you! I totally understand that!”  
She sighed out of desperation. “You don’t get it, right?”, she asked him shaking her head. “No, of course you don’t get it. I don’t blame you for choosing your family and telling me to go to hell. That’s fine. What I’m mad about is that you kept me believing everything was ok and you gave me such a perfect night to say bye and I didn’t even know that! I didn’t know that would be our last kisses, our last night together, our last ‘I love you’...”  
Then she laughed bittersweetly. “That’s why you didn’t want to sleep with me... Of course. So I guess there won’t be a ‘next time’”, she said, cleaning her tears.  
He took some steps towards her, but she noticed it and got apart.  
“You said I wasn’t gonna lose you...”, she cried.  
“And you’re not. I’m still here. I’m still your friend-  
“But I don’t wanna be your friend, Stephen!!”, she shouted.  
Then, someone knocked the door and opened it, looking rather confused by the screams inside.  
“Hey, uhm... Oh, Em, you’re here too, good. So, you’ve got to shoot in 30 minutes”, a guy from the set told them. “Remember it’s the mansion scene, right?”  
Emily looked at Stephen one more time and then went away after telling that guy a very sharp ‘thanks’.  
Great. She had just had the biggest fight with Stephen and she was so disappointed and upset, and now she had to film the damn scene where oliver Queen tells Felicity Smoak he loves her. She would have to listen those three words she was told just the night before and now she knew she would never hear again. At least, not from Stephen’s lips directed to her.  
“Hey! Watch out!”, Colton said when she crashed into him on the hallway. He saw her red eyes and stopped her with his arm. “Em, have you cried?”  
She looked around to see if they were alone and then said: “Stephen just told me he chooses his beautiful wife, so yes, I’ve cried, and no, I don’t feel like talking about it, especially when about to shoot this stupid scene!”.  
Colton tried to stop her, but she was already gone. She went to her trailer, where there was a girl: the one who was gonna put her make up on.  
“Come on, Em, we’re out of time”, she said, pushing Emily towards a chair. She sat down and let her do her thing. She needed to calm down. She needed to remember her lines. She needed to prepare psychologically for the fact that she’d have to look at Stephen and hear him say ‘I love you’. She had to be mentally prepared.  
“You’re ready. Now put on your clothes. They’re just there”, she said pointing out to a hanger. Emily was now alone. She put on Felicity’s clothes and looked herself in the mirror. _I’m Felicity Smoak. I’m Felicity Smoak. Now I’m gonna get out and I’m gonna see Oliver Queen. He’s gonna tell me he loves me and it would be perfectly fine_.  
Then, once she thought she was convinced, she got out and went to the place where they were going to shoot the scene. Marc was giving Stephen specific instructions and then he came to talk to Emily. She focused on his words completely, trying not to think of anything else. So finally, she came closer to Stephen, avoiding eye contact and they waited on the other side of the door until the director said ‘action’.  
Then, they opened they door and, while they were entering, Emily, as Felicity, said:  
“Oliver, what are we doing here? The whole city is falling apart”.  
Stephen, as Oliver, closed the door, grabbed her by her arm and took her further in the house. “I know”, he replied. He took a deep breath and, when he thought they were in a good place, he stopped, so she did the same and looked at him. “You need to stay here”.  
“What?!”, she asked in shock. “Why? You can’t just ask me-  
“I’m not asking”, he asserted. He was incredibly serious. She kept silent, not understanding what was going on. “I’ll come back and get you when this is all over”, he added, starting to leave.  
“No!”, she said.  
“Felicity...”, he replied in a mandatory voice, heading towards the door, followed by her.  
“No, no unless you tell me why”.  
He stopped and turned around to face her again. “Because I need you to be safe”, he told her.  
“What? I don’t wanna be safe”, she said as he looked down. “I wanna be with you. And the others, unsafe”.  
“I can’t let that happen”.  
Emily knew it was coming. The big moment was coming. She felt it in her stomach. “Oliver”, she said, grabbing his arm. She approached him a little and looked him in the eye. “You’re not making any sense”. Stephen’s look was heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking.  
“Slade took Laurel because he wants to kill the woman I love”, he said and she quickly added: “I know, so?”  
“So he took the wrong woman”, he answered.  
Emily pretended to be surprised. “Oh...”, Felicity was speechless for the first time.  
And there he was, and she just wanted to ran away.  
They stared at each other for a long time. She could feel her heart racing and she was sure his was exactly the same.  
“I love you”, he eventually murmured with his melting eyes. That wasn’t Oliver Queen. That wasn’t a character’s line. That was her Stephen and she couldn’t handle it. She fixed her gaze at his lips, so kissable and she felt miserable when she realized she would never kiss them again. Then, he lowered his voice even more and muttered: “Do you understand?”  
She had to say yes. At least that was what the script said. But she remembered the letter, everything that had happened, his stare, his voice, the way he had said ‘I love you’ and that last question, and so she said with a shaking head: “No, not at all”.  
There was a silence in which no one said anything and Stephen looked confused. Then, the director handled the situation. “Em, you have to say ‘yes’, ok?”  
Emily looked down, putting her hand on her head. “Yeah, sorry, I made a mistake”.  
“Don’t worry, it’s ok”. He saw her having a bad time. “Do you want a break or something?”  
She shook her head. “No, let’s just do it”.  
She swallowed hard and she did it. She prefered to do it then rather than take a break and go through it again later. She did the scene and then she approached their director to talk to him. Stephen was listening to them and she knew it, but she didn’t care.  
“Hey, uhm... I’m not feeling really well, could I go home and rest?”, Emily asked.  
“Sure. In fact, you don’t seem well, so... yeah, take a rest, Em”, the other replied.  
She felt Stephen’s look on her back, but she left without even looking at him. She couldn’t. She left that place and started to walk with no direction. She didn’t want to go home. If she did, she would remember the last night with Stephen and that would be way worse. She needed something very specific, and she realized what it was. So she took a taxi and told the driver the address. When she arrived, she took the lift and stopped in front of the door. What was she gonna say when the door was opened? Finally, she knocked at the door. When it opened, her mum appeared on the other side, wearing her pyjamas. She was very surprised to see her there so early in the morning.  
“Honey, what are you doing here?”, she asked with a parental tone.  
Emily tried to talk, but she was speechless. She just kept staring at her mum, shaking very slowly her head.  
“Emily... are you ok?”  
And that was the terrible question. No, she wasn’t ok. She broke down and started to cry a river, so her mother quickly embraced her and helped her come inside. She kept crying for what seemed like ages until she fell asleep on her mother’s lap. Now she was safe. Now she was home.

When she woke up, several hours had passed. She was calmer now and much more aware of herself. Her mother came by with a plate full of nutella sandwiches, which Emily loved. She sat by her side and saw her eat.  
“Stephen?”, her mum asked quietly.  
Emily nodded, looking down.  
“Life sucks, uh?”  
Emily nodded again.  
“Well, you can always jump down a bridge. Or never get out this house”.  
Emily looked at her, frowning her brow. “Mum, what are you saying?”  
She shrugged. “Just saying that he is the best man on Earth, and so hot, such a good person and there are no other men in this planet, so you should jump off a cliff or something”, she explained to her. “There no point in keeping on living”.  
And then Emily understood her point: he wasn’t the end of the world. She still had a life. Her world, her life didn’t reduce to Stephen. And, of course, he wasn’t perfect and there were so many other men out there.  
Then, Emily smiled. “You’re a psycho, you know...”, she murmured.  
Her mum smiled back. “But I’m your favourite psycho”, she replied and Emily hugged her really tight.  
“I love you”, she told her.  
Her mum cupped her cheecks with her hands and said looking straight to her eyes: “I love you too, but don’t you dare cry for anyone ever again, you understand? Not even for me. People come and go, that’s life. The ones that remain, those are the ones that matter, the rest are just transitory people, just life lessons. And the only thing you can do with them is learn and move on. So, as I see it, disappoiments in life are just great chances to grow as a person, so there’s no reason to cry”.  
Emily stared at her and wondered if she would ever be such a wise woman as her mother was.  
“I know now you feel like it’s the end of the world, you’ve fallen to pieces. I know. I’ve been there too. But you know what? You’ll get over it. We always do. And when you do, you’ll laugh at yourself for being such an asshole and wasting your tears”.  
Emily tilted her head. “And what do I do until I laugh at myself?”  
“Live your life like there was no tomorrow. There is no time for tears. There is no time for regrets. There is no time for ‘What if...’. You just can live and make the most of your life”.  
Emily looked down. She appreciated her mother’s words, but it was easier to say than to do. “And what do I do with this feeling? It’s like my heart was broken”.  
“You fall, you get up. If your heart is broken, sew it. Sadness is not an option here”.  
Then, Emily reacted. Her mother was right. That was not Doomsday. Not at all. It wasn’t the Apocalypse. She was hurt, that for sure. But she had to move on. She could not let her relationship with Stephen affect her that much.  
“You know... I’m sure he must be having a really bad time too”, her mum said out of a sudden.  
“So I hope”, Emily answered, but then she realised she was being incomprehensive. She was being evil.  
“Really?”  
Emily sadly smiled. “No...”  
They remained silent for a while. And when Emily decided what to do, she stood up, kissed her mum and said she had to leave.  
“Where are you going?”, she asked her, suprised by her unexpected recovery.  
“I’m getting my life back and, hopefully, a friendship”.  
Her mother smiled. That was her girl.

 

***

Stephen was tired. He had been filming all day and last night had not been an easy one. Besides, he had been all day thinking about Emily, they way she had left. He knew these things were never easy, but he didn’t want her to suffer that much. He would give anything to make it less difficult for her. He was in his trailer, changing his clothes. They had finished filming and he wanted to go home as soon as possible. He didn’t have to say goodbye to anyone: they would see each other next day in the little party they had prepared as a celebration for wrapping season 2. He was putting his phone and wallet on a bag when the door opened. He expected someone from makeup or something, but no: it was Emily. She seemed breathless; actually she was grasping for air, resting on the door’s handle.  
“Thank God, you’re always the last one to leave...”, she said still finding it difficult to breathe.  
Stephen frowned. “Are you ok?”  
She nodded, swallowing. “Yeah, I just ran a little”.  
“From your house?”, he asked in shock.  
“Of course not, from the taxi”, she replied.  
He couldn’t help but smile a little, and she sighed.  
“I needed to talk to you”, she finally told him.  
He nodded and took a sit on his sofa. Given that, she closed the door and took some steps towards him.  
“I’m sorry”, she said.  
He was surprised. “What? No, _I_ am sorry”, he told her.  
She shook her head. “No, it’s me who should be apologizing for-  
“That’s not true, I was the one who-  
“Ok, we both are sorry”, Emily cut him off and then laughed a little. “Gosh, I can’t believe we’re arguing about this...”  
He smiled. “we’re idiots...”  
She nodded. “yeah...”  
They went silent for what seemed like ages. “Stephen... I’m sorry about my behaviour before. I was hurt. I still am. But I know you didn’t plan on breaking my heart, so...”  
“I didn’t. That was the last thing I wanted to happen”.  
“I know”, she repeated. “And well... I want you to know that I want you in my life. As a friend or as whatever. But I need you and I want you in my life. Like always”.  
He stood up and touched her hand with his. “Thank you, Emily. You have no idea how much this means to me”.  
“But please, give me some time. Because right now I’m quite mad at you and I can’t be around you so much time without feeling bad. So please, just act normal and... let’s hope that with time, we can be the good friends we used to be”, she explained to him, to which he nodded.  
He then offered her his hand. “Friends?”  
She looked at his hand and then at him and eventually accepted his hand. “Friends”, she answered with a smile. They were still shaking their hands when he approached her and hugged her tight. It got her by surprise, but she quickly hugged him back.  
“I’ll miss you”, he said to her ear.  
She closed her eyes. God, how much it hurt.  
“Me too, Stephen”, she replied and, getting apart, she added: “But, hey, two months will fly, you’ll see!”  
He smiled. They knew they were trying to pretend they were ok, like it was not a big deal. But deep down it hurt a lot and showing a smile when your heart is broken is one of the most difficult things in life.  
Suddenly, the door opened. It was Cassandra.  
“Hi! Am I interrupting anything?”, she asked.  
Emily shook her head. “No, I was just leaving”.  
“Good”, Cassandra replied. “So, you ready?”  
Stephen nodded. They all got out of his trailer. “Well, see you tomorrow at the party?”, he asked her.  
“I guess so”, she said, shrugging her shoulders.  
“Then see you tomorrow”, he told her.  
“Bye, have fun”, she said, trying to keep it cool.  
“Bye, Emily”, Cassandra told her, as they left.  
She stood there, watching them leave. At some point, Cassandra held his hand and they seemed like a happy couple. And Emily’s pain increased. She knew Stephen was not made for her; or maybe he was, but circumstances were not the appropriate ones. She knew Stephen was not her happy ending, anyway.   
"Maybe it's better this way", she heard someone say beside her. She looked around: it was Robbie.  
"Maybe", she agreed watching Stephen and his wife again.   
"I'm sure you'll find the right guy", he told her with an optimistic voice.   
Emily took a deep breath and nodding with energy. "Yes, and you know what? I'm not gonna be sitting here, waiting for that guy to appear".   
He looked at her, amused. "Oh, really? And what are you gonna do?"  
"I’m gonna meet my destiny. Like right now", she replied and, after smiling at Robbie, she left. She knew Stephen wasn't her happy ending, yes, but that didn't mean she couldn't have a happy ending. And she was willing to find it. So she ran as fast as she could to that Starbucks she had been the other day with Colton, the one where that boy tried to flirt with her. However, when she arrived it was closed. She checked her phone: of course it was closed, it was so late... And then, looking at the phone she remembered it: that boy wrote his phone number on her coffee. And her coffee was... in the bin!! She took a taxi and went directly to her house. Once there, she rummaged for that coffee on her rubbish. She finally got it!   
"Hi, it's Collin", she heard on the phone.   
She let herself take a breath. Finally, he was there.   
"Hey, it's Emily", she said with a casual voice.   
"Emily?"  
"Yeah, the one whose dog ate that woman's muffin...", she told him echoing their last and only conversation until that moment. She heard him laugh.   
"Oh, _that_ Emily", he answered. "Well, there's something you should know".   
She expected the worst. "Don't tell me you found a girl so fast", she joked and he laughed again.   
"No, but... I haven't watched Arrow yet",   
Emily remained silent for a few seconds, trying to make sense out of it.   
"So what?", she asked.   
"You said you wouldn't talk to me until then..:", he reminded her.   
She smiled. "Well, I think I can make an exception..." 

 

And, even though you're broken, you always have to collect all your pieces and move on. Emily knew Stephen was in her heart and he was likely to never leave that place. But that was life: once you love someone, you never stop loving them. You just learn to love another person while keeping that little piece of your heart taken for them. She knew it would take time to be able to look Stephen in the eye and do not feel pain, but she will, eventually. She had to think that way, otherwise, she'd go mad.   
She would have given anything to be with Stephen, but it would never happen adn she had to accept it. Sometimes the best chapter in your life, like any book, is not the last one. Sometimes, the best chapter is just in the middle, when there's still a lot to occur in the story. That's the beauty of life: people come to your life and you cannot know whether they will stay there for a few days, a few years or forever. You don't know if they're gonna make you have the best time of your life or they're gonna make you suffer. You don't know if the boy you met at the elevator will be your everlasting love. You never know. So there is only one thing left for us to do: keep on dancing in this ball which is life. 

 

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there!   
> Well, I have some things to say: 
> 
> 1\. It's been a pleasure to write this story. I've really had so much fun with it and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did :) 
> 
> 2\. I'm sorry if the end didn't meet up your expectations. I never planned on writing an unexpected story. As I said in a comment in chapter 19, sometimes what matters is not whether the end is happy/sad or expected/unexpected. Sometimes, it is about the story itself. Usually I know how a book is going to end since page 1, but I don't care because the beauty of the book is the progress of the story and how you go from one place to another. Hope you know what I mean... So, yeah, I accept all your criticism about not having a happy ending and not being unexpected, but I also want to tell you that that wasn't my intention at all :) 
> 
> 3\. I have no words to thank you for all your support and patience. I honestly feel really lucky. So THANK YOU!! ^^ 
> 
> 4\. I do not dismiss the idea of a second part in the future, who knows... :) :) 
> 
> 5\. If there is any situation you feel like reading, you can tell me an idea/scenario and I could write a one-shot of that idea so that you can see your thoughts come true :):) 
> 
>  
> 
> So thank you again, have fun and never stop dancing in life! :) 
> 
> Xx 
> 
>  
> 
> Sara


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